Association of lipid-lowing efficacy and safety of short-term statins therapy with different dosages

Abstract

Objective To investigate the lipid-lowing efficacy of short-term statins therapy with different routine clinical dosages, and the association of plasma concentrations, lipid-lowing efficacy and safety of statins. Methods A total of 153 in-hospital patients with hypercholesterolemia were enrolled in the study from August 2010 to April 2011 in Peking University People's Hospital. The patients were randomly divided into 4 groups, which received 20 mg, 40 mg simvastatin, 10 mg or 20 mg atorvastatin orally daily. The lipid profiles before and after 1-week treatment, and plasma concentrations of statin after 1-week treatment were assessed. All adverse events of statins were also recorded. Results Different dosages of simvastatin and atorvastatin were able to reduce TC and LDL-C levels (P<0.01) at one week. The percent reductions in LDL-C and TC levels were increased by 7.1% and 3.3% respectively after doubling the dosage of simvastatin from 20 mg to 40 mg (P=0.156, P=0.104), while 1.5% and 0.5% were observed after doubling the dosage of atorvastatin from 10 mg to 20 mg (P=0.352, P=0.259). More patients at high risk reached LDL-C target than those at very high risk (71.0% vs. 32.8%, P<0.001). There was no significant difference in plasma concentrations between different dosages. The plasma concentrations of atorvastatin 10 mg treatment group were correlated with the reduction of LDL-C (all P<0.05). No association was observed between the plasma concentrations and adverse events of statins. Conclusions Different routine clinical dosages of simvastatin and atorvastatin can effectively reduce the TC and LDL-C levels after short-term treatment. There is no association between plasma concentrations and adverse events of statins. Key words: Lipid metabolism disorders; Simvastatin; Atorvastatin; Lipid-lowering efficacy; Safety