CONTEXT Few data exist about the incidence of drug-induced pancreatitis in the general population. Drugs are related to the etiology of pancreatitis in about 1.4-2% of cases. Statins are generally well tolerated. Acute pancreatitis has been reported in a few cases treated with atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 56-year-old patient who, a...

Clinical Improvement and Successful Pregnancy in a Preeclamptic Patient With Antiphospholipid Syndrome Treated With Pravastatin To the Editor: The clinical hallmarks of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) are thrombosis and adverse obstetric outcomes. Women with APS have a higher incidence of preeclampsia.1 Currently, treatment of APS focuses on anticoagulation therapy, treatment mostly given e...

The Pravastatin or Atorvastatin Evaluation and Infection Therapy trial (PROVE-IT/TIMI-22) showed that in patients with acute coronary syndromes, aggressive lipid-lowering using atorvastatin 80 mg/day provided greater protection against death or major cardiovascular events than did moderate lipid-lowering using pravastatin 40 mg/day. Lowering the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level to appr...

Endothelin (ET)-1 is a likely candidate for a key role in diabetic vascular complications. In the present study, we hypothesized that treatment with pravastatin (an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase) would normalize the ET-1-induced contraction in aortas isolated from type 2 diabetic Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty (OLETF) rats. Contractile responses were examined by measu...

1. In this double-blind, placebo controlled, prospective study, it was assessed whether simvastatin or pravastatin monotherapy have adverse effects on muscle histology and muscle membrane permeability in hypercholesterolaemic patients. 2. Twenty-four patients, seven females and 17 males, with primary hypercholesterolaemia (LDL cholesterol levels > or = 4.14 mmol l-1) were selected from the outp...

Background: Statins are widely used to treat hyperlipidemia. Their immunosuppressive effect has recently been confirmed in various immune-mediated disease models. However, relatively few studies have been conducted on allergic inflammation, so the precise mechanisms of their actions against allergies have not been fully clarified. On the other hand, the role of interleukin (IL)-17 in immune res...

Purpose Treating small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains a therapeutic challenge. Experimental studies show that statins exert additive effects with agents, such as cisplatin, to impair tumor growth, and observational studies suggest that statins combined with anticancer therapies delay relapse and prolong life in several cancer types. To our knowledge, we report the first large, randomized, plac...

PURPOSE In the current study, the hypocholesterolemic drugs pravastatin and simvastatin were compared for their influence on cholesterol biosynthesis in the human lens. METHODS For measurements of cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis rates, human lenses were incubated for 20 hr in the presence of [14C]-acetate, and pravastatin or simvastatin. Radiolabeled [14C]-cholesterol and [14C]-fatty aci...

BACKGROUND Experimental studies revealed proinflammatory properties of angiotensin II. We evaluated antiinflammatory effects of the angiotensin II subtype 1 receptor antagonist olmesartan medoxomil alone and in cotherapy with the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor pravastatin in patients with essential hypertension and microinflammation. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured a panel of vascular inflammati...

BACKGROUND Elevated serum inflammatory marker levels are associated with a greater long-term risk of cardiovascular events. Because 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme-A reductase inhibitors (statins) may have an antiinflammatory action, it has been suggested that patients with elevated inflammatory marker levels may have a greater reduction in cardiovascular risk with statin treatment. METHO...