Nutraceutical pill containing berberine versus ezetimibe on plasma lipid pattern in hypercholesterolemic subjects and its additive effect in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia on stable cholesterol-lowering treatment

Table 3 Comparison between plasma lipid changes induced by monotherapy with BBR/P/RR (n. 14 subjects) or EZE (n. 12 subjects) and combined therapy with BBR/P/RR plus EZE in HCH patients

Lipid parameter	Baseline	Monotherapy	% changes	Combined therapy	% changes	^‡P
TC (mmol/L)	7.74 ± 0.40	6.34 ± 0.40^*	−18.0 ± 3.5	5.59 ± 0.40^†	−27.7 ± 3.8	< 0.001
LDL-C (mmol/L)	5.47 ± 0.51	4.19 ± 0.48^*	−23.5 ± 3.5	3.44 ± 0.44^†	−37.1 ± 4.5	< 0.001
HDL-C (mmol/L)	1.58 ± 0.40	1.59 ± 0.42	+0.17 ± 8.2	1.60 ± 0.42	+1.10 ± 5.7	NS
non-HDL-C (mmol/L)	6.15 ± 0.59	4.75 ± 0.57^*	−22.8 ± 3.8	3.98 ± 0.49^†	−35.3 ± 4.2	< 0.001
TG (mmol/L)	1.48 (1.08-1.89)	1.12 (0.95-1.47)^*	−18.6 ± 15.5	1.09 (0.94-1.35)^†	−23.1 ± 12.9	< 0.005

Values are means ± SD or medians (interquartile ranges). ^*P <0.001 vs baseline values and ^†P <0.001 vs monotherapy; ^‡P: significance of the differences between percent changes induced by monotherapy and by combined therapy (Student’s t test for paired data or Wilcoxon test, respectively). NS: not significant.

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