TY - JOUR T1 - Cochrane corner: PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease JF - Heart JO - Heart DO - 10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319629 SP - heartjnl-2021-319629 AU - John-Paul Carter AU - Aroon D Hingorani AU - John Wilkins AU - Amand Floriaan Schmidt Y1 - 2021/11/22 UR - http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2021/11/22/heartjnl-2021-319629.abstract N2 - Drug therapies targeted at the reduction of low-density lipoproteincholesterol (LDL-C) are mainstream in the treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and particularly for the prevention of coronary heart disease. In patients who do not have a sufficient response to, or who do not tolerate traditional LDL-C-lowering therapies such as statins or ezetimibe, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PCSK9 (PCSK9 inhibitors) may provide an alternative treatment. Non-mAb-based PCSK9 inhibitors such as inclisiran are also emerging but currently lack robust outcome data1 and their effects are not considered in the current review. In this synopsis, we summarise findings from a recent update of a Cochrane systematic review on the efficacy and safety of PCSK9 inhibitors.2 This article focuses on the effects on outcomes (CVD and total mortality), safety, and the quality of the evidence in studies of mAb PCSK9 inhibitors alirocumab and evolocumab. Most of the available studies compared PCSK9 mAb treatment against placebo (against a background of usual care including statin and or ezetimibe), with a smaller group of studies evaluating the effects of PCSK9 mAb directly against statins and/or ezetimibe (none of the trials compared PCSK9 exclusively against statin treatment).The following databases were systematically searched for suitable randomised controlled trials (RCTs): Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical … ER -