A new study has found that cholesterol levels which are abnormal can considerably increase the risk of heart failure.

The study found that one percent of the people taking statins and niacin had a major event in the following 14 months compared to five percent of those on ezetimibe.

A major event can be defined as an MI, myocardial revasculatisation, admission to hospital with an acute coronary syndrome or death from CHD.

It was also revealed during the study that adding niacin boosted HDL levels by 19% and significantly reduced the thickness of the carotid intima-media, which is an established marker of atherosclerosis.

This added ezetimibe-reduced LDL levels by 18% but had virtually no effect on the intima-media thickness.

'These findings for ezetimibe challenge the use of LDL reduction as a guaranteed surrogate for clinical performance. They are counter to the prevailing understanding of LDL cholesterol - that lowering LDL cholesterol results in slowing of the atherosclerotic process as has been convincingly shown for other classes of lipid-modifying drugs such as statins and bile acid resins,' said lead researcher Dr Allen Taylor director of the lipid clinic at Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC.