Atorvastatin in the treatment of patients with hereditary hypercholesterolemia

: Efficacy and tolerability of atorvastatin (20 mg/day) were assessed in a 3 month study on 19 patients (5 men, 14 women, mean age 52.3 years) with familial hypercholesterolemia. Average baseline levels of total cholesterol (CH) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) CH were 10.7 and 8.6 mmol/l, respectively. By the end of 3 months levels of CH, LDL CH, triglycerides and atherogeneity index decreased by 32, 41, 16 and 45%, respectively. This was accompanied by 21% increase of high density lipoprotein CH level. There were no cases of AST or ALT activity elevation above 3 upper limits of normal values. However 1 patient had asymptomatic elevation of ALT activity up to 53 U/l which did not cause interruption of therapy. Creatine kinase remained normal throughout the study period. Three patients (16%) stopped taking atorvastatin because of side effects. Thus in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia the dose of atorvastatin 20 mg/day was sufficiently well tolerated and provided effective control of lipid levels.