Hyperlipdemia an new treatments with statin medications - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The treatments at West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS – 1995) included 6596 men. The studies proved hugely successful; the all-cause mortality was reduced by 22% (Reamy, 1995).
Such results from WOSCOPS and other accompanying studies lead to the commonplace practice of using statin therapy for acute ischemia (Reamy, 1995). It has been proven that synthetic statins such as rosuvastatin and atorvastatin decrease LDL levels. A study showed results of using intensive statin treatment on atherosclerotic plaque burden; the LDL cholesterol level dropped from “130mg/dl to post treatment level of 60.8mg/dl with 40mg/day rosuvastatin” (Reamy, 1995, p. 8).
Other studies have also confirmed that statins are particularly useful for hypercholesterolemia in older patients. The curing action of statin was regardless of the previous levels of serum lipids, gender or age (Aronow, 2006). National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) III guidelines suggest that in high-risk patients low density lipoprotein (LDL) level of less than70mg/dl is a rational treatment strategy (Aronow, 2006). This strategy has nothing to do with the age of the patient.
In case of a high risk patient with hypertriglyceridemia (low serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol), a combination of nicotinic acid or fibrate with any drug that has the property of lowering LDL cholesterol can be effective (Aronow, 2006).
Moderately high-risk patients can be effectively treated with serum LDL cholesterol but the amount should be decreased to less than 100 mg/dl and this level of LDL cholesterol needs to be dropped further (30% to 40%) in case the patient is under LDL cholesterol drug therapy (Aronow, 2006). Despite remarkable lab results in treating hyperlipidemia there have been complications recorded with statin treatment.
A study conducted in United Kingdom showed that hyperlipidemia patients treated with statin showed the likelihood of suffering ...Download file to see next pagesRead More