Using a cholesterol-lowering drug after balloon angioplasty or similar artery opening procedures can substantially cut the risk of heart attack or other problems later on, Dutch researchers said this evening.
The study from Academic Hospital in Rotterdam was sponsored by Novartis Pharma AG, which sells the drug involved under the Lescol brand.
Involving 1,677 patients who had undergone a procedure to open up narrowed arteries, the study found that those given fluvastatin afterward had a 22 percent lower risk of suffering a "major cardiac event" in the following three-plus years than those in the study given an inert placebo.
A "major cardiac event" was described as a fatal or non-fatal heart attack, bypass surgery or the need to repeat the angioplasty or other similar intervention.
The report, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, said current statistics indicate that within five years after angioplasty, two of five patients will suffer a heart attack or other major coronary event.
The rate is even higher after 10 years. The study "identified a new treatment strategy for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention procedures, such as an angioplasty, to open blocked coronary arteries.
"The results clearly support the early use of lipid-lowering therapy fluvastatin in these patients, regardless of their cholesterol levels, to help prevent future cardiac events, including heart attacks and bypass surgery," said Patrick Serruys, the study's chief author.
There were 1.8 million such coronary intervention procedures worldwide in 2001, and the number is increasing by 8 per cent annually, according to data provided by the drug company.
About 90 per cent of patients receive immediate relief from chest pain but 66 per cent of them die or have a serious cardiac event, within the next 10 years.
Serruys predicted that the findings "will have lasting implications" for the treatment of patients who undergo such procedures.