PRAVASTATIN IN DIABETES-ASSOCIATED HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), type 1 and type 2, have an incre ased risk of coronary heart disease as a result of accelerated atheros clerosis. Dyslipidemia, often found in these patients, plays an import ant role in this process. This study investigates the efficacy and saf ety of lipid-lowering therapy with pravastatin, a 3-HMG-Coenzym A redu ctase inhibitor in hypercholesterolemic type-1 and type-2 diabetic pat ients. Of 49 patients (22 type-1 DM and 27 type-2 DM), 24 patients wer e treated with pravastatin, 20 mg/day, and 25 patients with placebo. A fter 24 weeks, total cholesterol (TC) was decreased by 22.2%, low-dens ity lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 25.8% and triglycerides (TG) by 1 3.6%. Pravastatin treatment did not induce a significant change in hig h-density (HDL) cholesterol levels. No differences in effects of prava statin treatment on serum lipids and lipoproteins were found with resp ect to the diabetes type. No serious side effects occurred and pravast atin treatment did not cause any deterioration in glycemia control. Th e data suggest that pravastatin is effective and safe in the treatment of dyslipidemia in both type-1 and type-2 diabetic patients.