The Effects Of Short-term Atorvastatin Therapy On Cardiac Function And Cytokines In Patients With CHF And The Correlation Between Serum Lipids And Cardiac Function

Objective To investigate the effects of short-term atorvastatin on cardiac function and serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF), and partly presume the statins mechanism of improving cardiac function in patients with CHF. To assess the correlation between serum lipids and cardiac function in patients with CHF. Methods Fifty patients with CHF (NYHA classⅡ~Ⅳ) were randomly divided into two groups: conventional therapy group (n=23) and atorvastatin group (n=27). All patients with CHF were treated by conventional therapy: angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitior or angiotensinⅡreceptor blocks,β-adrenoceptor antagonists, diuretics, digoxin, et al. The atorvastatin group plus atorvastatin 10 mg, quaque nocte for four weeks. Before and after treatment, the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured by ultrasonic cardiography and serum lipids, TNF-αand IL-6 were measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA). Thirty healthy subjects were chosen as controls. Results After four weeks, the serum levels of TNF-αand IL-6 were significantly lower in the atorvastatin group than those in the conventional therapy group (P<0.01). This corresponded with improved LVEF in the atorvastatin group (P<0.05). Compared with the conventional therapy group ,the total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) of the patients in the atorvastatin group were degraded after treatment (P<0.05). There were no significantly discrepant among different precipitating cause of CHF (P>0.05). There were no obvious correlation between serum lipids and cardiac function in patients with CHF before or after treatment (P>0.05). Conclusions Short-term atorvastatin therapy can improve cardiac function and decrease TNF-αand IL-6 in patients with CHF. It may be relevant to anti-inflammatory effect of the statins partly. There were no definitely relationship between serum lipids and precipitating cause of CHF. There were no obvious correlation between serum lipids and cardiac function in patients with CHF. Statins were beneficial to patients with CHF possibly, including non-ischemic heart disease.