Cholesterol lowering, sudden cardiac death and mortality

Figures & data

Table I.  Description of four recent statin trials in homogeneous populations (country, population, trial year). The effects on mortality were small, especially in terms of reduction of the absolute risk, or non significant.

	HPS	PROSPER	ALLHAT	ASCOT-LLA
Drug	Simvastatin	Pravastatin	Pravastatin	Atorvastatin
Country	UK	UK & The Netherlands	USA	UK & Scandinavia
Publication year	2002	2002	2002	2003
Population	High risk**	High risk**	High risk**	High risk**
Sample size	20 536	5 804	10 355	19 342
Patient age	>40y	>70y	>55y	>40y
Effect on overall mortality (RRR)^&	−13%	−7%*	−1%*	−13%*

*: non significant.

**: “High risk” means patients with established CHD or patients with risk factors of CHD and at high risk of having CHD but no symptom.

^&: “RRR” means Reduction of the Relative Risk.