Abstract

Background: to assess the efficacy and safety of fluvastatin in the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia in hypertensive patients (WHO I-II).
Material/Methods: An 8 week low-lipid diet was started if the fasting total cholesterol (TC) level was equal to or higher than 6.5 mM and the triglyceride (TG) level was lower than 4.6 mM. After the dietary period fluvastatin treatment was started, (20 mg daily) if the LDL-C level was >4.1 mM. Blood pressure, heart rate, as well as TC, HDL-C (HDL2-C, HDL3-C), apo A1, apo B and TG were measured at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of treatment. The daily dose of fluvastatin was increased to 40 mg, if a satisfactory lowering of LDL-C (3.5 mM) was not obtained after 4 weeks of treatment. The number of patients included in the study was 49, mean age 57.0±10.7 years (X&plusm;SD), the blood pressure 142 ±16/85 ±11 mmHg (systolic/diastolic respectively). The antihypertensive treatment remained unchanged.
Results: Thirty-six patients completed the study (6 patients were withdrawn because of lack of compliance, 7 patients were withdrawn at the end of the dietary period, because of the normalisation of lipid levels). Fluvastatin significantly reduced the TC level (from 7.22±0.88 mM to 5.99±0.98 mM), LDL-C (from 5.13±0.78 mM to 3.95±0.88 mM) and Apo B (from 0.97±0.21 mM to 0.85±0.15 mM), but did not influence the levels of HDL-C, Apo A1 and TG. The diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly by the end of the dietary period. After the administration of fluvastatin, the systolic blood pressure decreased significantly. Only minor side effects were observed.
Conclusions: Fluvastatin proved to be an effective and well tolerated drug in the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia in hypertensive patients.

Keywords: essential hypertension, fluvastatin, hypercholesterolaemia