CARE Reinforces Statin Role After Heart Attack

Patients who suffer a myocardial infarction can benefit from treatment with an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor or statin even if they have "normal" cholesterol levels in their blood. This was the finding of the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events (CARE) study of Bristol-Myers Squibb's pravastatin, the results of which were presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting on March 28.

Eugene Braunwald of Harvard Medical School, the lead investigator in the trial, said that CARE "will change the practice of medicine because it documents for the first time the benefit of cholesterol-lowering therapy in heart attack patients without hypercholesterolemia, and this type of patient is frequently encountered in clinical practice."

Prof Braunwald noted that the findings are consistent with and extend previous studies which have demonstrated that cholesterol-lowering reduces the risk of MI and cardiovascular death in patients with elevated cholesterol.