Key result
In postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women with a low probability of coronary artery disease, pravastatin increased forearm blood flow reserve by 38% at 4 weeks, but did not change coronary flow.
Why the study?
Does pravastatin improve forearm blood flow reserve and coronary flow velocity reserve in postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women?
Cohort (n=30)
No
Does pravastatin improve forearm blood flow reserve and coronary flow velocity reserve in postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women?
In postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women, pravastatin improved peripheral microcirculation early after initiation, but did not simultaneously improve coronary microcirculation.
Pravastatin-associated peripheral microvascular improvement should not yet change practice; leaves open differential coronary effects in postmenopausal women.
BACKGROUND: The relationships between flow reserves in coronary and peripheral circulation and their modification by statin therapy have not been assessed in the same patients, especially females. METHODS AND RESULTS: To assess the effect of pravastatin on both circulation, in 20 postmenopausal female patients with hypercholesterolemia but a low probability of coronary artery disease, the forearm blood flow reserve (FBFR) using the plethysmographic method and coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) by Doppler echocardiography were measured before, 4 and 8 weeks after starting the pravastatin and/or diet therapy. At baseline, CFVR and FBFR had a positive linear correlation (r=0.63, p<0.01) while each of them had a negative linear correlation (r=-0.53 to -0.63, p<0.05 each) with total or LDL-cholesterol levels. Four weeks after starting the pravastatin therapy when the decrease in total cholesterol reached a plateau, FBFR increased (p<0.05) by 38+/-14%, whereas CFVR did not. Such an increase in FBFR by pravastatin was related to the degree of total or LDL-cholesterol lowering. CONCLUSIONS: In postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women with a low probability of coronary artery disease, the cholesterol-lowering with pravastatin improved FBFR as early as 4 to 8 weeks after starting the therapy, whereas its effect on CFVR was unclear at that time.
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Yoshihisa et al. (2007) conducted a cohort in Hypercholesterolemia (n=30). Pravastatin vs. Diet therapy alone was evaluated on Forearm blood flow reserve (FBFR) at 4 weeks (p=<0.05). In postmenopausal hypercholesterolemic women with a low probability of coronary artery disease, pravastatin increased forearm blood flow reserve by 38% at 4 weeks, but did not change coronary flow.
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