A Randomized Trial of Alerting to Hypocholesterolemia Results of the Low Indexes of Metabolism Intervention Trial-C (LIMIT-C).

OBJECTIVES

The benefit of alerting clinical staff to drug-induced hypocholesterolemia in patients aged 75 years and older remains uncertain.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

The study included 1791 patients with serum cholesterol <160 mg/dL and on cholesterol-lowering drugs who were assigned to have an e-mail alert sent to their physician, and 1804 patients who were assigned to receive usual clinical care (control group). The primary outcome of the trial was annual death rate. Secondary outcomes included cholesterol-lowering drug dose reduction and emergency department (ED) visits.

RESULTS

At 1 year, 58 patients (3.2%) in the intervention group and 61 (3.4%) in the control group had died [relative risk 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.66-1.34; P = .74]. Quarter-averaged cholesterol-lowering drug defined daily doses were reduced by -13.5 ± 47.0 (-17% ± 60%) in the intervention group and by -5.1 ± 42.2 (-6%±54%) in the control group (difference -8.5 ± 1.5, 95% CI -5.5 to -11.4; P < .0001). Annual ED visit rates per 1000 patients were 291 in the intervention group and 336 in the control group (45 fewer visits per 1000 patients in the intervention group, 95% CI -1 to -89; P = .04).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

In this trial, alerting clinical staff to hypocholesterolemia in patients aged 75 years and older being treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs was associated with mildly reduced cholesterol-lowering drugs doses and marginally reduced ED visit rates. This e-mail alert intervention was not associated with a significant difference in 1-year survival rate compared with usual clinical care.

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