Raloxifene, lipoproteins and cardiovascular events. Review

SERMs (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators) can act as estrogenic agonists in some tissues, and as antagonists in others. Raloxifene is used to prevent and treat osteoporosis, but other effects on cardiovascular system and on apolipoproteins serum levels are described in the literature. A significative reduction by 5-15% in LDL-chol serum levels was observed in most of the studies evaluated, as well as a reduction by 0.2-8.5% in total cholesterol levels. No significative changes in HDL-chol and triglycerids levels were observed. Raloxifene was found to reduce the number of cardiovascular events only in osteoporotics women with an increased cardiovascular risk. There is a need for further studies to demonstrate that raloxifene is effective for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events.