[Effect of a long-term treatment with simvastatin, an inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, in dyslipidemic patients at high risk]

Abstract

The reduction of total and LDL cholesterol (TC and LDLc), apoprotein B (ApoB) and in some instances triglycerides (TG) and the increase of HDL cholesterol (HDLc) and apoprotein A (ApoA) seem to be associated to a reduced coronary risk. Aim of our work was to evaluate the effects of a chronic treatment with the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor simvastatin (MK-733), in a group of 8 dyslipidemic patients, 5 women and 3 men, aged between 48 and 69 years (mean age 59 +/- 8 years) at high risk being already affected by clinical compliances of atherosclerosis and not previously controlled by diet and/or other antidyslipidemic drugs. At the beginning and at the end (6 months) of this open study it was performed a clinical, ECG and ophthalmological examination, as well as an evaluation of the routine laboratory parameters. The initial dosage of simvastatin was a tablet of 10 mg/day, increased after a month to 20 mg and then to 40 mg/die. The mean dosage was 26.25 mg at the 3rd month and 21.25 mg at the 6th. Long-term simvastatin treatment was well tolerated (lack of important side effects as well as of significant changes of other clinical and laboratory parameters) and effective, reducing significantly (p less than 0.01) TC (317.9 +/- 30.8 vs 238.5 +/- 37.9 mg/dl), LDLc (210.6 +/- 48 vs 147.9 +/- 52 mg/dl), ApoB (144.7 +/- 17.5 vs 104.5 +/- 18), and TG (272.9 +/- 184 vs 200.5 +/- 117.6 mg/dl) and increasing in contrast HDL and ApoA values.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)