Copyright © 2002 by the European Society of Cardiology.
Short-term effects of atorvastatin on C-reactive protein
a Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, Kantonsspital, St. Gallen, Switzerland
b Ospedale della Beata Vergine, Mendrisio, Switzerland
revised August 13, 2001; accepted August 15, 2001
Abstract
Aim To study the short-term effect of atorvastatin on C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with or at risk for coronary heart disease.
Methods and Results One hundred and fifty-five randomly selected patients from the SWiss Intervention Trial for lowering CHolesterol (SWITCH) were assessed for high sensitivity CRP, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides at baseline, and after 1 and 3 months of treatment with atorvastatin at various doses to reach pre-defined lipid target values. The median decrease of cholesterol was 28% after 1 month and 35% after 3 months. LDL-cholesterol was decreased by 37% and 45%, HDL-cholesterol was increased by 7% and 8%, respectively. Patients with a low CRP baseline concentration (lowest quartile <1·34mg.l–1) displayed no significant change, whereas patients in the other quartiles showed a significant decrease, of 22% to 40% (P -value <0·05 to <0·001) at 1 month and of 32% to 36% after 3 months compared to baseline. The decrease in CRP lowering was thus fully established by 1 month and this response was independent of lipid and lipoprotein changes as well as atorvastatin doses.
Conclusion Atorvastatin significantly decreases CRP concentrations after 4 weeks of therapy. These results may be important with respect to the early benefit of statin therapy.
Key Words: High sensitivity CRP, atorvastatin, statins, acute coronary syndromes
f1 Correspondence: Prof. Dr W. F. Riesen, Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, Kantonsspital, 9007 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
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