Effect of Statins on the Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.

Introduction  Atherosclerosis mediated by inflammatory markers is the corner stone in the pathology of coronary artery disease (CAD). Hyperlipidemia, one of the risk factors is treated with statins. Statins also have a pleotropic role in reducing inflammation. Effect of statins on two inflammatory markers pentraxin 3(PTX 3) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is explored in this study. Objective  This article estimates the levels of serum PTX 3 and hs-CRP in CAD patients with and without statin therapy and correlates the levels with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) in CAD patients without statin therapy. Material and Methods  This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 62 patients with CAD diagnosed by coronary angiogram. They were divided into two groups. Group I were the CAD patients on statin therapy and group II were CAD patients who never had any lipid lowering drugs irrespective of their lipid values. Serum PTX3, hs-CRP, and lipid profile were estimated in these groups. Comparison between the groups was done using Student's t -test and correlation analyzed using Pearson's correlation. Results  Serum PTX 3 and hs-CRP levels were higher than the reference range in both the groups. But group I showed significantly low PTX 3 levels ( p -value = 0.032) compared with group II. There was a significant positive relationship between PTX 3 and LDL-c ( p  = 0.003) in group II. Conclusion  CAD patients on statin therapy have lower vessel wall inflammation compared with patients without statin therapy.