[Simvastatin in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia in the aged. An epidemiological and clinical study]

The paper review the literature on the subject and underlines the importance of hypercholesterolemia. It also reports the findings of the large trials, works and consensus studies, including the results of the Framingham Study, the Lipidic Research Clinics Program and the main international conferences. On the basis of these findings, it assesses the hypocholesterolemic effect of simvastatin in a sample group of 51 mainly geriatric outpatients following a standard period of preliminary dietary therapy. Subjects were treated with 20 mh/day simvastatin for not less than one month, after which lipidic parameters were evaluated and revealed significant variations: circulating cholesterin was reduced from 322 mg% +/- 49.4 to 225 mg% +/- 37.6 (p less than 0.001), the LDL-lipoprotein level fell from 229 mg% +/- 6.6 to 152 mg% +/- 36.3; HDL-lipoproteins showed no significant variation, nor did other tests to ascertain possible hepatic involvement or other parenchymas secondary to the use of simvastatin. Overall cholesterol levels decreased from 16423 mg% to 11511 mg%, equivalent to 29.9%. Lastly, simvastatin also proved to be clinical efficacious, and was easy to manage and well tolerated by elderly patients. All subjects responded equally well to treatment independent of their general condition and sex. Basal cholesterolemia in elderly subjects decreased from 320 mg% +/- 46.3 to 226 mg% +/- 33.2 (p less than 0.001) and in adults from 325 mg% +/- 56.6 to 224 mg% +/- 46.5 (p less than 0.001); LDL-cholesterol decreased from 232 mg% +/- 46.5 to 153 mg% +/- 35.6 (p less than 0.001) and from 224 mg% +/- 46.6 to 147 mg% +/- 38.7 (p less than 0.001) respectively.