Statin drugs could lower heart attack causing C-reactive protein, says study

Statin drugs currently used to cut down cholesterol levels could also reduce the much more harmful C-reactive protein which is implicated in cardiovascular events, according to a new study.

The high sensitivity C-reactive protein, or hsCRP is linked to heart attacks. Patients having high levels of C-reactive protein has a 5 percent to 20 percent risk for developing heart disease within 10 years, despite possessing a normal  normal cholesterol levels.

C-reactive protein is thought to be behind the inflammation in the arterial walls which leads to cardiovascular incidences like heart attack and stroke.

Statins could lower their risk for stroke or heart attack by more than 40 percent in people with high hsCRP levels, the researchers at the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

A regimen using statin drugs can effectively reduce both hsCRP and cholesterol level, the study authors found after re-analyzing already-collected data from a large statin study. The study, which was conducted among men over 50 years of age and women over the age of 60, prescribed rosuvastatin at a dosage of 20 milligrams.

On analysing the data, the researchers found statins can cut down heart disease risk by 45 percent among patients with a 10-year risk of between 5 percent and 10 percent.

Meanwhile, statin use lowered the risk to as much as 50% in people having an even higher decade-long risk between 11 percent and 20 percent.

But those people with rather low risk for heart disease –which is less than 5 percent –had no benefits with the regular intake of statin drugs, the researchers reported in the Aug. 24 issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

hsCRP testing for patients with an intermediate risk for heart disease is recommendend both by the American Heart Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both.