Health
Statins reduce risk of subsequent strokes
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 28, 2006
An 80 mg daily dose of atorvastatin reduced the risk of subsequent strokes and cardiovascular events among patients who had recently had a stroke, according to a study in the Aug. 10 New England Journal of Medicine. There was, however, a small increase in the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke.
The researchers found that of the 4,731 patients enrolled in the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 265 who received the statin had a fatal or nonfatal stroke within five years, compared with 311 patients who took the placebo.
The study was welcomed by David Kent, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, for shifting the focus to statins and stroke risk, a research area often overlooked in favor of statins and heart risk. "[It] seems that stroke neurologists have had to peer at clinical trial results over the shoulders of their cardiologist colleagues so often that they are at risk for chronic neck ailments," he wrote in an editorial, also in the Aug. 10 NEJM.
The trial, the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels, or SPARCL, was funded by Pfizer, the manufacturer of Lipitor.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/08/28/hlbf0828.htm.
