Lundquist Researcher Presents Final EVAPORATE Results That Show Icosapent Ethyl Significantly Reduces Coronary Plaque

LOS ANGELES — Today, The Lundquist Institute announced that Matthew Budoff, MD, Director of Cardiovascular CT at the Institute and Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, will present the final results of the EVAPORATE study at ESC Congress 2020 (organized by the European Society of Cardiology) with concurrent publication in the European Heart Journal.

“EVAPORATE provides important mechanistic data on coronary plaque characteristics that are potentially relevant to the clinical use of icosapent ethyl,” says Dr. Budoff. “We have demonstrated regression of atherosclerosis with the use of Icosapent ethyl over 18 months of therapy, which complements the significant clinical benefit seen in the REDUCE-IT study. EVAPORATE is the first demonstration of imaging results with icosapent ethyl using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT).”

A total of 80 patients were enrolled in the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled EVAPORATE trial. Patients had to have coronary atherosclerosis as documented by MDCT (1 or more angiographic stenoses with ≥20% narrowing), be on statin therapy, and have persistently elevated triglyceride (TG) levels (mean TG at baseline was 259.1 mg/dL [+/- 78.1]). Patients underwent an interim scan at 9 months and a final scan at 18 months. The final results showed a significant reduction in the primary endpoint; icosapent ethyl reduced LAP plaque volume by 17% from baseline to the 18-month scan, whereas there was a progression of low-attenuation plaque (LAP) volume in the placebo group.

The presentation is available here, with a concurrent publication in European Heart Journal.

Financial Disclosure

Funding from the Amarin Corporation was provided to The Lundquist Institute to sponsor Dr. Budoff’s work on the EVAPORATE study.