Guidelines for lowering lipids to reduce coronary artery disease risk: a comparison of rosuvastatin with atorvastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin for achieving lipid-lowering goals

Both the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III and the Second Joint Task Force of European Societies guidelines have established low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol goals for lipid-lowering treatment to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. Data from 3 trials that compared rosuvastatin 10 mg (n = 389) with atorvastatin 10 mg (n = 393) and 2 trials that compared rosuvastatin 10 mg (n = 226) with pravastatin 20 mg (n = 252) and simvastatin 20 mg (n = 249) were pooled separately to compare the achievement of LDL cholesterol goals over 12 weeks of treatment in hypercholesterolemic patients. Noncomparative pooling of rosuvastatin 10 mg results from all 5 trials (n = 615) showed that 80% achieved NCEP ATP III goals and 81% achieved the European goal of <3.0 mmol/L. Compared with atorvastatin 10 mg, significantly more patients treated with rosuvastatin 10 mg achieved their ATP III (76% vs 53%) and European (82% vs 51%) goals (p <0.001). Also, in comparisons with simvastatin 20 mg and pravastatin 20 mg, 86% of patients treated with rosuvastatin 10 mg achieved ATP III goals, compared with 64% of simvastatin-treated patients and 49% of pravastatin-treated patients (p <0.001). The proportions of patients who achieved the European goal were 80%, 48%, and 16% for rosuvastatin 10 mg, simvastatin 20 mg, and pravastatin 20 mg, respectively, in this comparison (all p <0.001). A total of 71% of patients treated with rosuvastatin 10 mg who had triglyceride levels ≥200 mg/dL met both their LDL cholesterol and their non–high-density lipoprotein cholesterol goals.