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Cholesterol drugs may slow valve disorder
Dec 02 (Reuters Health) - A widely prescribed class of cholesterol-lowering drugs may slow the progression of a heart-valve disorder, according to the results of a new study.
If the findings are confirmed, the drugs, known as statins, could turn out to be the first drug treatment for the valve disorder, which is currently treated with surgery.
Aortic stenosis causes the valve to the aorta, which is the body's largest artery, to become narrower and narrower. Eventually, this stenosis can block the flow of blood from the heart to the aorta, leading to complications including heart failure. Surgery to insert a new valve can correct the condition, but treatment is controversial, with some physicians recommending a wait-and- see approach.
Some experts suspect that high cholesterol levels contribute to the progression of aortic stenosis just as they hasten the clogging of arteries, but research on the connection between cholesterol and aortic stenosis has been mixed.
In the new study, Dr. Maurice Enriquez-Sarano and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, looked at 156 people with aortic stenosis who were followed for roughly 4 years.
Although cholesterol was not linked to aortic stenosis, the valve condition progressed more slowly in people who were taking cholesterol-lowering statin medications.
The study does not prove that statins were the reason aortic stenosis progressed less rapidly, but Enriquez-Sarano and his colleagues conclude that the results justify a clinical trial of the treatment.
Though statins were designed to lower cholesterol, the researchers suspect that other effects of the drugs, possibly their anti-inflammatory actions, may account for the slowing of aortic stenosis. This study is not the first time that statins have been suspected of providing benefits besides reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The drugs are being studied for the treatment of other diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.
The study seems "to offer the promise that a safe and effective medical therapy for aortic stenosis is not just wishful thinking," Dr. Alan S. Pearlman, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, writes in an editorial that accompanies the study.
Pearlman points out that studying the effect of statins on aortic stenosis will not be easy, given that many patients with the condition have other cardiovascular risk factors, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, that may make it difficult to assign them to a placebo rather than a statin. Despite this problem, such studies are necessary, according to Pearlman, because aortic stenosis "is too prevalent, and its consequences too important, to ignore."
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2002;40:1723- 1730, 1731.
Cholesterol drugs may slow valve disorder
Dec 02 (Reuters Health) - A widely prescribed class of cholesterol-lowering drugs may slow the progression of a heart-valve disorder, according to the results of a new study.
If the findings are confirmed, the drugs, known as statins, could turn out to be the first drug treatment for the valve disorder, which is currently treated with surgery.
Aortic stenosis causes the valve to the aorta, which is the body's largest artery, to become narrower and narrower. Eventually, this stenosis can block the flow of blood from the heart to the aorta, leading to complications including heart failure. Surgery to insert a new valve can correct the condition, but treatment is controversial, with some physicians recommending a wait-and- see approach.
Some experts suspect that high cholesterol levels contribute to the progression of aortic stenosis just as they hasten the clogging of arteries, but research on the connection between cholesterol and aortic stenosis has been mixed.
In the new study, Dr. Maurice Enriquez-Sarano and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, looked at 156 people with aortic stenosis who were followed for roughly 4 years.
Although cholesterol was not linked to aortic stenosis, the valve condition progressed more slowly in people who were taking cholesterol-lowering statin medications.
The study does not prove that statins were the reason aortic stenosis progressed less rapidly, but Enriquez-Sarano and his colleagues conclude that the results justify a clinical trial of the treatment.
Though statins were designed to lower cholesterol, the researchers suspect that other effects of the drugs, possibly their anti-inflammatory actions, may account for the slowing of aortic stenosis. This study is not the first time that statins have been suspected of providing benefits besides reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The drugs are being studied for the treatment of other diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.
The study seems "to offer the promise that a safe and effective medical therapy for aortic stenosis is not just wishful thinking," Dr. Alan S. Pearlman, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, writes in an editorial that accompanies the study.
Pearlman points out that studying the effect of statins on aortic stenosis will not be easy, given that many patients with the condition have other cardiovascular risk factors, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, that may make it difficult to assign them to a placebo rather than a statin. Despite this problem, such studies are necessary, according to Pearlman, because aortic stenosis "is too prevalent, and its consequences too important, to ignore."
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2002;40:1723- 1730, 1731.
