Effect of atorvastatin (80 mg/day) versus pravastatin (40 mg/day) on arterial remodeling at coronary branch points (from the REVERSAL study)

SJ Nicholls, EM Tuzcu, P Schoenhagen, I Sipahi… - The American journal of …, 2005 - Elsevier
The American journal of cardiology, 2005Elsevier
The effect of moderate and intensive lipid lowering on plaque progression and arterial
remodeling at coronary branch points was investigated. Intensive (+ 1±19.6%), but not
moderate (+ 4.1±15.1%), lipid lowering prevented an increase in plaque area at the branch
points. The 2 strategies were associated with increased areas of the lumen (+ 7.6% to 9.4%)
and external elastic membrane (+ 9.6% to 10.8%). In contrast, there was no significant
change in plaque, lumen, and/or external elastic membrane areas at the nonbranch point …
The effect of moderate and intensive lipid lowering on plaque progression and arterial remodeling at coronary branch points was investigated. Intensive (+1 ± 19.6%), but not moderate (+4.1 ± 15.1%), lipid lowering prevented an increase in plaque area at the branch points. The 2 strategies were associated with increased areas of the lumen (+7.6% to 9.4%) and external elastic membrane (+9.6% to 10.8%). In contrast, there was no significant change in plaque, lumen, and/or external elastic membrane areas at the nonbranch point site. These results suggest that intensive lipid lowering can have a dramatic effect on atheroma-prone regions and that remodeling in response to changes in plaque is a heterogenous process.
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