THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF PRAVASTATIN AND SIMVASTATIN IN PATIENTS WITH PRIMARY HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA

The efficacy and safety of pravastatin, 10 mg once a day, were compared with that of simvastatin, 10 mg once a day, in 16 patients with primary type IIa hypercholesterolemia, in a nonrandomized, open-label, sequential trial of eight weeks. On both drug treatments significant reductions in total cholesterol (TC) (16.2% with pravastatin and 22.4% with simvastatin), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (26.3% with pravastatin and 31.4% with simvastatin), TC/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio (22.8% with pravastatin and 25.9% with simvastatin), and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio (22.9% with pravastatin and 25.0% with simvastatin) were observed at the eighth week. However, the reduction in TC and LDL-C appeared to be significantly (P < 0.05) greater after simvastatin treatment than with pravastatin. A statistically significant increase in HDL was achieved with pravastatin (11.4%) but not with simvastatin (2.9%). Serum triglyceride values increased with pravastatin (6.8%) and decreased with simvastatin (9.8%); these changes were not significant. With both drugs, at the end of the washout period, the plasma lipid levels returned to the pretreatment values. Both drugs were well tolerated and no serious side effects were observed.