Despite the widespread use of lipid-lowering agents such as statins, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Icosapent ethyl (IPE) (Vascepa), an ethyl ester of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), has gained widespread popularity as an adjunctive agent that targets multiple and additional mechanisms linked to the incidence of cardiovascular (CV) events and the causative pathway of atherosclerosis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 standards were used to conduct this systematic review. In this review, we assessed various studies from PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), and Google Scholar to evaluate the mechanisms of action and beneficial effects of IPE in the reduction of CVD outcomes. The Reduction of Cardiovascular Events with Icosapent Ethyl-Intervention Trial (REDUCE-IT) has demonstrated a significant reduction in CV mortality with 4 g/day IPE as compared to placebo. All other trials and observational studies have supported the role of Vascepa in hypertriglyceridemia and CV risk reduction. In conclusion, the use of IPE has been shown to significantly reduce triglyceride levels and reduce CV risks in patients receiving optimal statin therapy.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk reduction; coronary artery disease; eicosapentaenoic acid (epa); icosapent ethyl; vascepa.
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