Fewer Strokes When Elderly Patients Take Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

By 2010, an estimated 20% of the United States population will be 65 years old or older. It’s this same age group that experiences the highest number of heart attacks and strokes but cholesterol-lowering drugs, which stave off these events, aren’t prescribed as often for people in this age bracket as they are for younger patients. Researchers at Wayne State University have just published their research findings that indicate these drugs are just as beneficial for older patients as they are for younger ones.

Leading the research team, Seemant Chaturvedi, MD, affiliated with both Wayne State and the American Academy of Neurology, recruited 4,731 adults, age 18 and older, for a multi-year study of the drug atorvastatin, frequently prescribed to lower cholesterol. Each study participant had suffered a stroke or transient ischemic attack, often called a mini-stroke, a short time before joining the study.

The participants were divided into two groups according to their ages. The group of participants 65 and older numbered 2,249, the average age of which was 72. The second group of 2,482, all younger than 65, was of the average age of 54. Within each group, half were given atorvastatin and the other half placebos. Each study participant was followed for an average of four and one-half years.

Both groups saw reduced levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the bad form of cholesterol, with LDL counts dropping an average of 61 points in the elderly group and 59 points in the younger group. The risk of having a second stroke was reduced 26% in the younger group and 10% in the older group.

With the aging US population of particular concern, Chaturvedi considers it important that the burden of stroke and other cerebrovascular events be reduced and his study of atorvastatin in an elderly population identifies a way to achieve that goal. The Chaturvedi study is part of a larger study known as SPARCL, or the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels study.

Details of Chaturvedi’s study, funded by Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of atorvastatin, were published September 3 in the online issue of the medical journal, Neurology, a publication of the American Academy of Neurology.

Filed under: Elderly Care, Neurology, Prevention, Stroke