Background: Atherosclerosis associated with hyperlipidaemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after renal transplantation. Atorvastatin is a new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor that has shown a favourable profile of lipid reduction when compared with other statins. The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy and safety of atorvastatin in hypercholesterolaemic renal transplant patients who had previously been on statins with little or no effect.
Methods: Atorvastatin, 10 mg/day, was administered to 10 renal transplant recipients with persistent hypercholesterolaemia (total cholesterol >240 mg/dl) for a period of 3 months. All of them had already been on statins for at least 3 months.
Results: Atorvastatin exerted a satisfactory lipid-lowering effect in seven of 10 patients. On average, serum total cholesterol (311+/-36.2 vs 253+/-48.8 mg/dl; P:<0.05) and serum LDL cholesterol (184+/-30.9 vs 136+/-22.9 mg/dl; P:<0.05) significantly decreased after atorvastatin therapy, whereas serum HDL cholesterol (86+/-14.6 vs 84+/-22.1 mg/dl) remained unchanged. In five subjects with a baseline serum triglyceride level above 150 mg/dl, a marked reduction in triglycerides was also observed (261+/-80.3 vs 193+/-53.3 mg/dl; P:<0.05). Lp(a) did not significantly change (13+/-16.3 vs 15+/-23.9 mg/dl, P:=NS). Serum creatinine, transaminases, creatinine phosphokinase (55+/-21.3 vs 56+/-29.4 IU/l) and fasting cyclosporin A levels were unaffected. The drug was generally well tolerated and neither myositis nor rhabdomyolysis was reported.
Conclusion: Short-term therapy with the new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, atorvastatin, appears to be effective in lowering atherogenic lipids in renal transplant patients who had had little or no response to other statins.