Efficacy and tolerability of lovastatin in elderly hypercholesterolemic patients

In a previously published multicenter study (Kannel and associates, 1990), the effects of six months' treatment with lovastatin were evaluated in patients with hypercholesterolemia. In the present report the results from the 144 elderly patients (aged 65 to 83 years) are presented and compared with those from the 343 patients aged less than 65 years. The initial dose of lovastatin was 20 mg daily and could be increased to a maximum of 80 mg/day. After one month of treatment, in both the elderly and younger patients, levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides, and the total cholesterol: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and LDL:HDL [corrected] cholesterol ratios were significantly lower and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were significantly higher. These improvements in the lipid profile were maintained for six months in both patient groups. LDL cholesterol goals of less than 130 mg/dl in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or two CHD risk factors and less than 160 mg/dl among the other patients were achieved by 53% of the elderly patients and 40% of the younger patients at one month (P less than 0.01) and by 62% and 47% at six months (P less than 0.01). By the end of the study, the mean daily dose of lovastatin was 35.4 mg for the elderly and 38.4 mg for the younger patients. The drug was generally well tolerated by all patients. The results indicate that both elderly and younger hypercholesterolemic patients respond well to treatment with lovastatin.