title: Statins and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.
abstract: A mini-review (Griffiths, 2002) of double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was undertaken to assess the long-term effect of lipid lowering treatments (statins versus placebo) in secondary prevention of myocardial infarction (MI). The population sample was adult patients with a history of MI, documented coronary heart disease or coronary artery disease. The Cochrane Library and the database Medline were searched and three RCTs appeared to possess all of the stipulated inclusion and exclusion criteria. The trials all compared statins against a placebo; one trial was of simvastatin--the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (1994)--and the other two were of pravastatin--the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events Trial (CARE) (Sacks et al, 1996) and Long Term Intervention with Pravastatin Ischaemic Disease (LIPID) (Anon, 1998). The trials demonstrated that statins had a clear and consistent effect in significantly reducing the risk of MI. Overall an approximate decline of 30% in MI was produced from the three trials.
authors.affiliation: mehboub.ahmed@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mehboub
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017035:Pravastatin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D019821:Simvastatin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D019821:Simvastatin; D017035:Pravastatin