ABSTRACT
In the past decade, clinical intervention trials have definitively demonstrated the benefits of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) lowering by statins in both primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD).1 Thus statins have become drugs of choice in hyperlipidaemic patients with clinical signs of coronary artery disease. This is due to three large secondary prevention trials using simvastatin (Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study, 4S2) or pravastatin (Cholesterol and Recurrent Events, CARE;3 and The Long-Term Intervention With Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease, LIPID4). Each of these studies showed substantial reductions in fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular endpoints. The 4S and LIPID studies also showed reductions in total mortality.
