Statins and coronary artery disease: clinical evidence and future perspective

Many clinical trials have demonstrated the beneficial effects of statins on cardiovascular risk, both in patients with history of coronary heart disease and in healthy subjects with risk factors, because of a significant reduction in acute coronary events. The introduction of more powerful statins in the market offered the opportunity to study whether an intensive lipid lowering treatment could yields even better cardiovascular outcomes than a moderate statin therapy and several clinical trial confirmed this hypothesis. Statins have also pleiotropic effect behind their lipid lowering function: they reduce inflammation, which plays an important role in the atherosclerotic process.