Bristol-Myers Squibb's cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol (pravastatin) slows the progression of coronary atherosclerosis within six months of therapy initiation as well as reducing clinical events at the end of two years, according to the results of the Regression Growth Evaluation Study presented at the meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans.
In the 885-patient study, conducted by Albert Bruschke from the University of Leiden, Netherlands, patients with serum cholesterol levels between 155-310mg/dl received 40mg of pravastatin or placebo once-daily for two years. About 47% of patients had a previous myocardial infarction event.
Assessments of the width of patient arteries by coronary arteriograms showed a 40% improvement in mean segment diameter for pravastatin treated patients compared to patients receiving placebo. Mean segment diameter decreased by 0.1mm in placebo patients and by 0.06mm in the pravastatin group. In addition, minimum obstruction diameter, which refers to the width of the artery at the narrowest point, was reduced by 67% to 0.03mm from 0.09mm in the placebo-treated patients.
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