Effect of Combination Therapy With Fenofibrate and Simvastatin on Postprandial Lipemia in the ACCORD Lipid Trial

OBJECTIVE The Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes lipid study (ACCORD Lipid), which compared the effects of simvastatin plus fenofibrate (FENO-S) versus simvastatin plus placebo (PL-S) on cardiovascular disease outcomes, measured only fasting triglyceride (TG) levels. We examined the effects of FENO-S on postprandial (PP) lipid and lipoprotein levels in a subgroup of ACCORD Lipid subjects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We studied 139 subjects (mean age of 61 years, 40% female, and 76% Hispanic or black) in ACCORD Lipid, from a total 529 ACCORD Lipid subjects in the Northeast Clinical Network. PP plasma TG, apolipoprotein (apo)B48, and apoCIII were measured over 10 h after an oral fat load. RESULTS The PP TG incremental area under the curve (IAUC) above fasting (median and interquartile range [mg/dL/h]) was 572 (352-907) in the FENO-S group versus 770 (429-1,420) in the PL-S group (P = 0.008). The PP apoB48 IAUC (mean ± SD [μg/mL/h]) was also reduced in the FENO-S versus the PL-S group (23.2 ± 16.3 vs. 35.2 ± 28.6; P = 0.008). Fasting TG levels on the day of study were correlated with PP TG IAUC (r = 0.73 for FENO-S and r = 0.62 for PL-S; each P < 0.001). However, the fibrate effect on PP TG IAUC was a constant percentage across the entire range of fasting TG levels, whereas PP apoB48 IAUC was only reduced when fasting TG levels were increased. CONCLUSIONS FENO-S lowered PP TG similarly in all participants compared with PL-S. However, levels of atherogenic apoB48 particles were reduced only in individuals with increased fasting levels of TG. These results may have implications for interpretation of the overall ACCORD Lipid trial, which suggested benefit from FENO-S only in dyslipidemic individuals.