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Trial, not randomized · measured other health measures

Trial analysis of 8,179 adults: similar heart benefit with or without irregular heartbeat history

Olshansky and colleagues · Journal of the American Heart Association · 2023

Original title: Cardiovascular Benefits of Icosapent Ethyl in Patients With and Without Atrial Fibrillation in REDUCE-IT.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Atrial fibrillation hospital stays: 3.1% vs 2.1% (P=0.004) overall; 12.5% vs 6.3% with earlier AF. Serious bleeding trended higher on drug (7.3% vs 6.0%; 2.3% vs 1.7%). Heart benefit was similar with or without prior AF.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Trial, not randomized
Who or what was studied
8,179 people · adults on statins with high triglycerides and heart risk, split by whether they had atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) before the trial
What was tested
Icosapent ethyl versus placebo (dose not given in the abstract), in people with and without earlier atrial fibrillation
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Trial registration
NCT01492361
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed. Grants listed are from the US Veterans Affairs and NIH.
Journal
Journal of the American Heart Association, 2023
Source
PubMed record 36802845. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Not randomized: the groups may differ in ways that affect the result.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • ✓Large: 8,179 people.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: heart attacks, strokes and heart deaths

    11

    7 benefit, 4 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    3

    1 benefit, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does fish oil prevent heart disease?”

Little or no effect in most trials.

Confidence: moderate. Based on 21 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 2 papers on the same step: 2 no difference. This one found benefit. It differs from most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 21 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 3 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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