Cited 3 times since 2001 (0.1 per year) source: EuropePMC Heart (British Cardiac Society), Volume 86, Issue 5, 1 1 2001, Pages 533-539 Pravastatin and endothelium dependent vasomotion after coronary angioplasty: the PREFACE trial. Mulder HJ, Schalij MJ, Kauer B, Visser RF, van Dijkman PR, Jukema JW, Zwinderman AH, Bruschke AV

Objective

To test the hypothesis that the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme-A reductase inhibitor pravastatin ameliorates endothelium mediated responses of dilated coronary segments: the PREFACE (pravastatin related effects following angioplasty on coronary endothelium) trial.

Design

A double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, multicentre study.

Setting

Four hospitals in the Netherlands.

Patients

63 non-smoking, non-hypercholesterolaemic patients scheduled for elective balloon angioplasty (pravastatin 34, placebo 29).

Interventions

The effects of three months of pravastatin treatment (40 mg daily) on endothelium dependent vasomotor function were studied. Balloon angioplasty was undertaken one month after randomisation, and coronary vasomotor function tests using acetylcholine were performed two months after balloon angioplasty. The angiograms were analysed quantitatively.

Main outcome measures

The efficacy measure was the acetylcholine induced change in mean arterial diameter, determined in the dilated segment and in an angiographically normal segment of an adjacent non-manipulated coronary artery.

Results

Increasing acetylcholine doses produced vasoconstriction in the dilated segments (p = 0.004) but not in the normal segments. Pravastatin did not affect the vascular response to acetylcholine in either the dilated segments (p = 0.09) or the non-dilated sites. Endothelium dependent vasomotion in normal segments was correlated with that in dilated segments (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). There were fewer procedure related events in the pravastatin group than in the placebo group (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Endothelium dependent vasomotion in normal segments is correlated with that in dilated segments. A significant beneficial effect of pravastatin on endothelial function could not be shown, but in the dilated segments there was a trend towards a beneficial treatment effect in the pravastatin group.

Heart. 2001 11;86(5):533-539