Long-term hypolipidemic effect and safety of pravastatin compared with cessation of therapy in patients with hyperlipidemia

Kim, Seog Ho; Kim, Yang Soo; Kang, Heung Sun; Cho, Jung Whee; Kim, Kwon Sam; Kim, Myung Shick; Song, Jung Sang; Bae, Jong Hoa

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Hyperlipidemia is the one of the major risk factors causing the atherosclerosis of coronary arteries. Treatment of hyperlipidemia with drugs has been confirmed the effcts of therapy showing a decreased incidence of coronary artery disease. Pravastation is one of the new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and we studied the long-term hypolipidemic effects and safety of pravastatin in patients with hyperlipidemia and lipid profile after cessation of pravastatin therapy. METHODS: We studied 27 patients(6 males and 21 females, range of age : 36~67 years) for 14.7 months whose plasma levels of total cholesterol were higher than 250mg% after one month period of diet therapy. Pravastatin was administered 10mg/day and measured lipid profile at 4 weeks interval, and at 2~3 months after cessation of therapy. RESULTS: 1) Pravastatin significantly reduced the plasma total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride, but HDL-cholesterol was increased significantly after 12 months pravastatin therapy(p<0.05). 2) Two to three months after the cessation of pravastatin therapy, plasma total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride were significantly increased(p<0.05), but no significant difference was observed for HDL-cholesterol. 3) The clinical and laboratory examinations before and after pravastatin treatment showed no particular abnormal findings. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that long-term pravastatin therapy in patients with hyperlipidemia seems to be very effective and safe. But hyperlipidemia developed again two to three months after the cessation of pravastatin therapy.