Hemorheologic and Coagulative Pattern in Hypercholesterolemic Subjects Treated with Lipid-Lowering Drugs

The effects on the coagulative and rheologic pattern of two lipid-lowering drugs, bezafibrate and simvastatin, were studied in 36 hypercholesterolemic subjects. Patients were randomly divided into two groups (18 subjects each) and received bezafibrate R 400 mg/day or simvastatin 10-40 mg/day over a twelve week period. Besides a decrease in plasma fibrinogen and fibrinopeptide A (p<0.001 both), bezafibrate induced a reduction of factor VIIc and VIIIc activity (p<0.001 both), while antithrombin 3 activity was increased (p<0.001) and the hemorheologic pattern was greatly improved (p<0.001). Simvastatin caused a slight decrease in factor VIIIc activity and a moderate reduction of beta thromboglobulin. The efficacy of bezafibrate in reducing the activation of the coagulative cascade and improving the hemorheologic pattern has been con firmed; the peculiar triglycerides- and fibrinogen-lowering effect of the drug, not observed with simvastatin, could be responsible for these modifications.