Cholesterol Drug Appears to Improve Blood Flow

Drugs that lower cholesterol may also decrease the risk of heart disease through another mechanism, according to a new report in the American Heart Journal. Researchers have found that patients who take statins appear to be more likely to form “collateral” arteries in the heart, which circumvent blocked arteries and allow blood to continue to flow.

Drugs that lower cholesterol may also decrease the risk of heart disease through another mechanism, according to a new report in the American Heart Journal. Researchers have found that patients who take statins appear to be more likely to form “collateral” arteries in the heart, which circumvent blocked arteries and allow blood to continue to flow. “The family of cholesterol lowering medications called ‘statins’ have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks in people who have blockages or narrowings in the arteries that bring the blood to their heart,” lead author Dr. Richard H. Karas told Reuters Health. “These findings suggest that one of the benefits of taking [statins] is that they help the heart to grow new blood vessels that might help supply blood to the part of the heart that is being served by a severely narrowed or even a blocked artery,” he explained. “And this could help to preserve their heart function in parts of the heart that are not getting enough nutrients and oxygen because of poor blood supply.” “Patients who are taking statins might, in effect, grow their own ‘bypass’ blood vessels,” he said. Karas and colleagues from Tufts University School of Medicine, in Boston, note in their paper that animal experiments have shown that statin drug can promote the growth of new vessels in oxygen-starved tissues, an effect unrelated to cholesterol lowering. To investigate any similar effect in humans, the researchers studied 94 patients with at least one major coronary artery blockage who were undergoing examination of the coronary arteries (angiography). Prior to admission, 51 patients were taking statins, and 43 were not. The team graded the presence of coronary collaterals visualized on the angiograms from 0 to 3. They found that the average score was significantly higher among statin-treated patients than those not taking statins. The investigators found no association between collateral score and levels of low-density lipoproteins-the “bad cholesterol.” “These findings lend further support to the concept that statins can have benefits in addition to those derived directly from cholesterol lowering,” Karas commented. However, he and his colleagues add that the association seen in this study needs to be confirmed by additional clinical trials. (Source: American Heart Journal, November 2003, Reuters Health, MEDLINE Plus