[Lovastatin efficacy and tolerance in primary hypercholesterolemia. The German Lovastatin Study Group]

In the course of an open multicentre clinical trial 786 patients (512 men, 274 women; mean age 52.4 +/- 11 years) with primary hypercholesterolaemia (total cholesterol 328 +/- 72 mg/dl, triglycerides 174 +/- 87 mg/dl, LDL cholesterol 246 +/- 73 mg/dl, and HDL cholesterol 50 +/- 18 mg/dl) received 20-80 mg lovastatin daily for 12 weeks, after a four-week placebo period. On this regimen the concentration of total cholesterol fell by 27% to 238 +/- 52 mg/dl (P less than 0.001) of triglycerides by 13% to 140 +/- 69 mg/dl (P less than 0.001), that of LDL cholesterol by 36% to 157 +/- 53 mg/dl (P less than 0.001). But HDL cholesterol rose by an average of 12% to 54 +/- 17 mg/dl (P less than 0.001). Lovastatin was tolerated very well by 79% of patients, well by 19%, and poorly by 2%. Mild undesirable side effects of the drug (in particular meteorism, constipation, diarrhoea and nausea) were reported by fewer than 10% of patients. These data indicate that lovastatin is effective and well tolerated also when broadly applied in clinical practice.