Statin Might Help Fight Blood Clot...( Cholesterol-lowering Crestor cut risk...),Health

Cholesterol-lowering Crestor cut risk by 43 percent, study found

SUNDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- In addition to dramatically reducing the incidence of heart attacks and stroke, the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor appears to have another important benefit: reducing the rate of blood clots in the veins, new research has found.

Interestingly, participants in this study, being presented Sunday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., did not have elevated levels of LDL, or "bad," cholesterol, but they did have increased levels of the inflammatory marker called C-reactive protein (CRP).

"This suggests that a statin has potential beneficial effects on the venous circulation, not just the arterial circulation," said Dr. Carl J. Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans.

Lavie, who was not involved with the study, cautioned, however, that "this data is probably not powerful enough to use statins just for this reason."

The findings also suggest that statins may derive some of their benefit from their effect on C-reactive protein.

In fact, another study, also being presented at the meeting, concluded that, besides lowering cholesterol, part of the success of statins in reducing cardiovascular events such as a heart attack can be attributed to the lowering levels of CRP.

Both studies are based on data from the landmark JUPITER trial, sponsored by the drug maker AstraZeneca, which markets Crestor (rosuvastatin). The first trial is being published early in the April 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, while the second will appear in an upcoming issue of The Lancet.

For the JUPITER trial, nearly 18,000 men and women, average age 66, were randomly assigned to receive 20 milligrams of Crestor daily or a placebo. All the participants were "apparently healthy," wit
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