Research

Hormonal

Administration of 4 g daily of omega-3 carboxylic acids (Epanova) to statin-treated high-risk patients with hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL-C reduces triglycerides by 26-31% and non-HDL-C, but its impact on reducing cardiovascular events is currently unknown and being tested in the STRENGTH trial.

If you are on a statin and still have high triglycerides and low HDL, your cardiovascular risk remains elevated. This trial investigates whether adding 4 grams of a specific prescription omega-3 (Epanova) daily, on top of your statin, can lower those lipids and prevent heart events. While it reliably lowers triglycerides, whether this translates to fewer heart attacks or strokes is still being determined by the STRENGTH trial results.

ModerateConditionalMEDIUM confidence
STRENGTH will examine whether Epanova 4 g daily reduces the rate of cardiovascular events in statin-treated patients with hypertriglyceridemia and low levels of HDL-C at high risk for developing cardiovascular events.
Stephen J. Nicholls et al. · Clinical Cardiology · 2018

Why this rating

The paper describes a trial design and prior observational/subgroup data; the primary outcome (CV events) has not yet been reported.

Source

Assessment of omega‐3 carboxylic acids in statin‐treated patients with high levels of triglycerides and low levels of high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol: Rationale and design of the STRENGTH trial

Stephen J. Nicholls et al. · Clinical Cardiology · 2018

DOI 10.1002/clc.23055

rct · n=13086Cited 167×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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