Pre-loading therapy with statins in patients with angina and acute coronary syndromes undergoing PCI

Statins constitute the most powerful class of drugs for cardiovascular risk reduction associated to atherosclerosis. Their important pharmacological properties include reduction of serum lipid concentrations and non-lipid related, pleotropic effects such as anti-inflammatory action. Previous largescale randomized studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of statin loading prior to elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the reduction of periprocedural myocardial infarction and prevention of major adverse cardiac events at 30 days. The present review summarizes the data from major randomized trials that evaluated the clinical benefit of statin pretreatment in the setting of PCI resulting in a better understanding of their impact on reduction of interventional complications.