Drug Reduces Heart Attack, Stroke Risk by Up to 50%

In what some physicians are hailing as a "milestone" in preventive medicine, researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital have announced that a currently-available drug used in the treatment of elevated lipid levels in the bloodstream lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 50%, even in those with "normal" lipid values.

The study focused on the effects of a drug known as rosuvastatin, which is known to reduce the amount of lipids such as cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad cholesterol") circulating in the blood as well as reducing blood levels of a substance known as C- reactive protein (CRP). Elevated levels of CRP are known to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, although the biochemical mechanism behind this risk is not well understood.

Under the study protocol, 17,802 men andwomen with "normal" LDL levelsbut high C-reactive protein levels were given either a daily dose of 20 milligrams of rosuvastatin or a placebo. The group was then followed for the occurrenceof major cardiovascular events such as heart attack,stroke, arterial surgery, hospitalization for heart-related chest pain, or death from cardiovascular causes.

In the group that was given rosuvastatin, there was a decrease of 50% in LDL and 37% in CRP levels as compared to no significant changes in those given a placebo. There was a remarkable difference in the overall incidence of cardiovascular disease in the rosuvastatin group with an average of 0.77 events per year versus 1.36 per year in the placebo group.

The results of the study, known as the Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: An Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), were felt to be of such importance that the study itself was halted earlier than planned and its results were announced at the American Heart Association's annual scientific research meeting in New Orleans. The JUPITER results were published Sunday, November 9 in the online, "ahead of print," edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the United States, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca markets rosuvastatin as Crestor.