Rosuvastatin Improves Metabolic Syndrome
The statin drug rosuvastatin calcium (Crestor generic, AstraZeneca) reduces low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) by 49% and raises high-density lipo-protein-cholesterol (HDL-C) by more than 10%. The findings were presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Munich, Germany, the first international prospective study of statin therapy for the metabolic syndrome.
This syndrome is a cluster of three or more risk factors, including abdominal obesity, low levels of HDL-C, increased levels of triglycerides, elevated blood pressure, and elevated blood glucose.
Rosuvastatin is taken once daily as an adjunct to diet to treat lipid disorders.
The 12-week Comparative study with rosuvastatin in subjects with Metabolic Syndrome (COMETS), which was conducted at 68 centers in seven countries, compared a 20-mg dose of rosuvastatin with both tablet atorvastatin (Lipitor drug, Pfizer) and placebo.
Noting that the rising number of people with the metabolic syndrome has serious implications for public health, one of the study’s investigators, from Baylor College of Medicine, said that rosuvastatin was effective for high-risk patients and that it offered significant benefits.
