Abstract
To date, 5 major randomized, placebo-controlled statin trials—the Scandinavian Simvastatin
Survival Study, West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study, Cholesterol and Recurrent
Events trial, Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease, and Air
Force/Texas Coronary Atherosclerosis Prevention Study—have convincingly shown that
total mortality and major coronary events can be significantly reduced by lowering
levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with statin therapy. These results
were achieved in a broad range of patients including those with and without a history
of coronary artery disease and with elevated or average LDL-C levels. The results
also support the large body of epidemiologic evidence demonstrating that the lower
the cholesterol level, the lower the cardiovascular risk. Evidence now substantially
supports the urgency of physicians to aggressively target the lowering of LDL-C levels
for the primary and secondary prevention of coronary disease.
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© 2001 Excerpta Medica Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
