Effects Of Simvastatin On Carotid Artery Atherosclerotic Plaques In Patients With Cerebral Infarction

1 Background and purposeStatins(HMG-coA reductase inhibitors)can lower serum cholesterol and decrease the incidence of stroke and cardiovascular disease. Growing evidence suggest that statins might exert some of their beneficial effects independent of cholesterol lowering. In this study we examined the effects of Simvastatin on carotid artery plaques in patients with cerebral infarction by long-term treatment. 2. Methods74 patients with cerebral infarction were divided into two groups randomly. 40 patients were treated with Simvastatin(20mg) per night for 12 months. The rest of patients were treated without Statins, and considered as control group. The fasting blood lipid level and carotid artery plaques score were measured at the beginning of the study (as baseline) and 3, 6, 12 month after treatment in both groups. 3 ResultsThere was no significant difference between the two group on the levels of blood Tch, Tg, HDL, and LDL at all time points (p>0.05). However, there is statistically significant difference on the carotid artery plaque score between treated and untreated groups at both 6 and 12-month time points, In Simvastatin-treated group, the plaque scoresof the patients were decreased while those of control group showed an increased level (p<0.05). 4 ConclusionsThis study suggested that Simvastatin could possibly delay the progression of carotid artery atherosclerosis in addition to their lipid-lowering effects.