Meeting UK national targets for lipids in acute coronary syndrome with early and intensive lipid reduction: a single centre District general hospital experience

Abstract

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains the leading cause of death in the industrialised world and is ever increasing in developing populations. This study assesses the safety and effectiveness of atorvastatin 40 mg in meeting new targets for lipids in patients presenting to the coronary care unit with ACS. A group of 79 consecutive patients admitted with ACS were initiated on or changed to atorvastatin 40 mg during admission. The reduction in total cholesteron (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and incidence of any adverse effects were assessed at one week, one month and three months after hospitalisation. At baseline only 13% and 23% of patients had their TC and LDL-C respectively within Joint British Societies 2 (JBS2) national institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) targets for patients with cardiovascular disease. After 1 month of atorvastatin therapy these values had increased to 77% and 70% respectively with an absolute reduction in TC and LDL-C of 30%. At baseline 47% and 50% of patients had TC and LDL-C within National Service framework (NSF) targets at baseline, however, 1 week after atorvastatin therapy the proportion of patients achieving NSF targets increased to 88% and 84% for TC and LDL-C respectively. These data suggest that early and intensive reduction of lipids with atorvastatin 40 mg for ACS patients in hospital is a safe and effective strategy to meet recommended targets for lipids. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2008; 8: 286—290