[Beyond cholesterol levels: new therapeutic indications of statins]

Cardiovascular diseases represent the major cause of morbility and mortality in industrialized countries, even if the incidence is quite different between each other. In the last years the knowledge of molecular mechanisms, which are responsible of progression of atherosclerosis vascular disease and of its complications such as coronary heart disease, has been particularly improved. At this regard new pharmacological compounds are introduced in clinical practice improved efficacy and effectiveness and, among these ones, thanks to statins a significative reduction in primary endpoint (i.e. reduction in incidence of stroke, total and cardiovascular mortality) has been already demonstrated. This effectiveness seems to be due by acting directly on the vascular atherosclerotic plaque independently from the reduction of blood cholesterol level which, on the contrary, may be involved in the progression of atherosclerotic vascular process.