The effects of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin on exercise tolerance in patients with coronary heart disease

ABSTRACT

Objectives

This study was aimed to analyze the effects of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin and different lipid-lowering intensity treatments on exercise tolerance in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).

Methods

A retrospective analysis was conducted in 549 patients with CHD who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) from February 2014 to August 2018. The CPET results of patients taking different types and doses of statins were compared from baseline to follow-up.

Results

No significant difference was found in baseline VO₂peak between the rosuvastatin group and the atorvastatin group. The VO₂peak growth of the rosuvastatin group was significantly greater than that of the atorvastatin group after treatment [1.52 ± 4.03 ml/kg/min vs 0.90 ml/kg/min (−1.60, 3.45), p = 0.018]. Multivariate analysis showed that atorvastatin was a negative independent influencing factor of ΔVO₂peak (B = −0.665, SE = 0.321, t = −2.070, p = 0.039, 95% CI: – 1.295~-0.034). There was no significant difference between the median intensity and high-intensity lipid-lowering groups in parameters of CPET.

Conclusions

The exercise tolerance improvement was more considerable for patients with CHD taking rosuvastatin compared with those taking atorvastatin. The lipid-lowering intensity of statins was not independently associated with changes in exercise tolerance in patients with CHD.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronary heart disease
• statin
• exercise tolerance
• cardiopulmonary exercise testing

Author contributions

Conception and design: Wei Gao, Wei Zhao and Shunlin Xu. Analysis and interpretation of the data: Dan Liu, Tao Shen, Chuan Ren, Lequn Zhou, Jin Bai and Nan Li. Drafting of the paper: Dan Liu and Tao Shen. Revising it critically for intellectual content: Wei Zhao and Wei Gao. Final approval of the version to be published: Wei Gao.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0908700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81601968) and the Clinical Scientist Fund of XinXin Heart (SIP)Foundation–China Cardiovascular Association (NO. CCA-CSMVP-1710).