High Doses Of Statins Help Heart Patients

Taking very high doses of a drug to push cholesterol to very low levels can help people with heart disease avoid strokes and heart attacks, but also can cause liver problems that limit the ability to tolerate such intensive treatment, doctors report. A very large international study tested this approach for the first time in people with clogged arteries that occasionally cause chest pain, and found that it cut their chances of having a bad event such as a heart attack by 22 percent compared with those on a lower dose. The findings "confirm and extend" evidence that this strategy works, conclude the researchers, who were led by Dr. John LaRosa of State University of New York in Brooklyn. Results were presented Tuesday at an American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando. They also were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites) and will be in its April 7 edition.