Background: There is a strong correlation between adverse clinical events and peak values of myocardial necrosis markers in non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome patients. In this clinical setting, high-dose statin treatment exerts acute beneficial effects against renal and myocardial damage. The aim of this report was to evaluate if, on admission, high-dose rosuvastatin can exert cardioprotective effects when administered in addition to high-dose clopidogrel.
Methods: In the PRATO-ACS trial, 504 consecutive statin-naïve non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome patients scheduled for early invasive strategy and pretreated with high-dose clopidogrel were randomly assigned to rosuvastatin (40 mg on admission followed by 20 mg/d; statin group, n = 252) or no statin treatment (control group, n = 252). Serial myocardial biomarker samples were collected before and after angiography and/or percutaneous coronary intervention. The primary end point was the peak level of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) during the index event.
Results: Statin-treated patients presented median cTnI peak values similar to controls (3.9 [0.6-12.8] vs 3.5 [1.2-11.9] ng/mL, respectively; P = .60]; no differences were found between the 2 groups in cTnI and creatine kinase-MB values at any time point, in either preangiography and postangiography peak values or their cumulative release. In patients submitted to percutaneous coronary intervention, periprocedural myocardial infarction occurred in 8 (4.7%) of 171 statin-treated and 7 (4.3%) of 162 control patients (P = .87).
Conclusion: In the PRATO-ACS trial, early high-dose rosuvastatin did not show cardioprotective effects when administered in addition to high-dose clopidogrel.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01185938.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.