Coronary artery disease
Effects of Atorvastatin on Vitamin D Levels in Patients With Acute Ischemic Heart Disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2006.11.036Get rights and content

Vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for osteoporosis and other chronic diseases, including type 1 diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and ischemic heart disease. Cholesterol and vitamin D share the 7-dehydrocolesterol metabolic pathway. This study evaluated the possible effect of atorvastatin on vitamin D levels in patients with acute ischemic heart disease. Eighty-three patients (52 men and 31 women) with an acute coronary syndrome (75 with acute myocardial infarction and 8 with unstable angina) were included. After diagnosis, patients received atorvastatin as secondary prevention. Serum vitamin D was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography at baseline and at 12 months. Atorvastatin treatment produced a statistically significant decrease in cholesterol and triglyceride levels and an increase in vitamin D levels (41 ± 19 vs 47 ± 19 nmol/L, p = 0.003). Vitamin D deficiency was decreased by 75% to 57% at 12 months. In conclusion, atorvastatin increases vitamin D levels. This increase could explain some of the beneficial effects of atorvastatin at the cardiovascular level that are unrelated to cholesterol levels.

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Methods and Results

Patients hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome, defined as high-risk unstable angina, non–ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or ST-elevated myocardial infarction, were eligible for inclusion. Eighty-three patients (52 men and 31 women) with an acute coronary syndrome (75 with acute myocardial infarction and 8 with unstable angina) were included. Patients were recruited at hospital admission. Exclusion criteria were alcoholism, neoplasia, hyper- or hypocalcemia, and treatment with

Discussion

These results show that atorvastatin significantly increased vitamin D levels, thus decreasing the percentage of patients with vitamin D deficiency, a previously unrecorded finding. Comparable findings come from 2 small studies that included 18 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, which showed that lovastatin and simvastatin treatments resulted in increased plasma levels of vitamin D.4, 5 Grimes6 analyzed analogies between vitamin D and statins and suggested that part of the benefits

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This study was supported by Pfizer, Madrid, Spain.

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