HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Goldberg, R. B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Goldberg, R. B. Social Bookmarking                What's this?

Statin Treatment in Diabetic Subjects: What the Heart Protection Study Shows

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	STUDY

 
Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group: MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of cholesterol-lowering with simvastatin in 5,963 people with diabetes: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 361:2005–2016, 2003[Medline]

	SUMMARY

 
Objective. To assess the effects on vascular mortality and morbidity of a substantial LDL cholesterol reduction maintained for several years in a large cohort of diabetic individuals.

Design. A multicenter, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom.

Subjects and Methods. A total of 5,963 adults aged 40–80 years, known to have diabetes, with and without cardiovascular disease (CVD), and with total and LDL cholesterol levels not considered by their general practitioners to warrant statin therapy were randomized to simvastatin, 40 mg/day, or placebo. Rates of major cardiovascular events were assessed over a 5-year period and compared between active-treatment and placebo-treated groups.

Results. Simvastatin reduced LDL cholesterol from a mean baseline value of 125 mg/dl to a mean of 86 mg/dl. This effect was associated with a significant 22% reduction of major cardiovascular events compared to the placebo-allocated group, in which the absolute incidence was 25.1% in the 5-year period of follow-up. There was also a significant 33% reduction in events associated with simvastatin treatment among diabetic subjects without evident cardiovascular disease at entry and a 27% reduction among those with a baseline LDL cholesterol < 116 mg/dl.

Conclusion. Statin treatment is beneficial for people with diabetes irrespective of whether they have evident cardiovascular disease and even in those with below-average LDL cholesterol levels.

	COMMENTARY

 
Past studies of statin intervention trials1–4 demonstrated approximately equal benefit for CVD event reduction in the small subgroups of diabetic subjects who had . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?