Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Bone remodeling has always been the goal of surgeons for a long time. Recently, it was shown that statins that are commonly prescribed for lowering cholesterol also have beneficial effects on bone healing. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the probable effects of atorvastatin on osteogenesis in the rat femur.

Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 30 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The animals were divided randomly into one control and two experiment groups. After induction of anesthesia, a hole of 2 mm in diameter was made in femur width. The control group received physiological serum but the experiment groups one and two, respectively, received 10 and 20 mg/kg/PO of atorvastatin on daily basis. After euthanizing the rats, histopathological and histomorphometrical evaluations of the bones were performed 45 days after the intervention.

Results: In the control group, the defects seemed to be filled with woven bone and bone marrow, depictive of a poor osteogenic activity. In the experiment groups, many osteoblast groupings and young bone trabeculae had been formed and bone trabeculae were more organized. Histomorphometric results, showed that atorvastatin had significantly promoted bone healing in the experiment groups compared with the controls (P<0.001). Moreover, the analysis showed that atorvastatin had more significant effects in group three receiving high doses of the medication in comparison with group two (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that atorvastatin is capable of stimulating osteogenesis in rats.

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may been associated with high-er risk of cardiac events during this procedure. The goal of this study was to compare high dose atorvastatin therapy with low dose atorvastatin therapy 24 hours before PCI to a reduction in Peri- percutaneous coronary intervention myocardial infarction.
Methods: One hundred ninety patients with stable angina were enrolled in a randomiz-ed controlled clinical trial study. All patients received low dose atorvastatin. The patients scheduled for elective PCI were randomized to atorvastatin (80 mg/d, n=95) or placebo (n=95) within 24 hours before the procedure. Creatine kinase-MB, troponin I, and high sensitive C- reactive protein levels were measured at baseline and at 6 and 12 hours after the procedure. PCI related myocardial infarction was defined as increasing of Creatine kinase-MB or troponin I three times compared with values before procedure.
Results: Myocardial infarction was detected after coronary intervention in 4.2% of patients in the atorvastatin group and in 13.7% of those in the placebo group (P=0.022). Mean of changed levels of Creatine kinase-MB (0.7±0.5 versus 3.3±1.9 ng/mL, P<0.001), troponin I (0.1±0.2 versus 0.4±0.7 ng/mL, P=0.052) and hs-CRP (0.1±0.5 versus 1±0.9 ng/mL, P<0.001) were significantly lower in the statin than in the placebo group.
Conclusion: Pretreatment with high dose atorvastatin within 24 hours before elective percutaneous coronary intervention significantly reduces procedural myocardial infarct-tion in elective coronary intervention.

Background: Since high plasma level for C-reactive protein (CRP) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, thereby decrease in the level of high- sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients through anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce mortality and the incidence of heart failure. Accordingly, this research aims to investigate the effect of hs-CRP on ACS patients before and after treatment with astatines.

Methods: This cross-sectional and cohort study was performed for the population of 90 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) martyrs at the Mustafa Khomeini University Hospital in the Ilam city, Iran, From July to September, 2014. Blood samples were collected at admission and demographic and clinical symptoms, echocardiography and electrocardiography were recorded. At admission, the questionnaire including demographic information and medical history of patients was filled by the researchers and echocardiography and physical examination was carried out by cardiologist. The obtained data are further explored and analyzed via SPSS software, ver. 19 (Chicago, IL, USA).

Results: The sample under study was 52.2% and 48.8% men and women, respectively. Phi correlation coefficient of 73% and positive Cramer's V of 0.879 was observed between re-admission and arrhythmia admission for the group received 40 mg atorvastatin. It means that we have more re-admission when arrhythmia increases. Only 4% correlation coefficient and very low positive Cramer's V of 0.293 was seen for the group who receive 80 mg atorvastatin. It indicates that no significant correlation exists between eject fraction of admission and re-admission (P=0.18). The results showed that hs-CRP of the group that received 80 mg atorvastatin was 0.179 which is lower than 0.37 for the group who received 40 mg atorvastatin.

Conclusion: By increasing the astatine dose, the amount of hs-CRP and consequently the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events were reduced. Hence, high starting dose of atorvastatin at preliminary stages of hospitalizing can reduce re-admission and cardiovascular consequents.