MiscellaneousUsefulness of C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 as Predictors of Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Receiving Pravastatin
Section snippets
Methods
Patients with COPD in stable condition for ≥3 months, 40 to 80 years of age, and regardless of gender were consecutively recruited into the study. Criteria for diagnosis of COPD was based on standards of the American Thoracic Society6 with forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) <80% of predicted values and FEV1/forced vital capacity ratio <70%. None had acute exacerbations of COPD, any active infection, or renal disease (serum creatinine concentration ≥1.5 mg/dl or 133 μmol/L) for ≥3
Results
Of the 125 patients enrolled in this study, 18 patients had incomplete data at the end of the study (Figure 1).Table 1 presents baseline and demographic characteristics of patients in each group. Pravastatin was very well tolerated by all patients and none had any significant subjective side effects. Patient compliance with treatment was confirmed by significant effects on blood lipids (Table 2). The drug number of standard therapy for COPD was similar in the 2 groups.
Compared with the placebo
Discussion
Our results demonstrated for the first time that changes in hs-CRP over time and baseline hs-CRP are associated with corresponding changes in exercise tolerance associated with statin therapy. Improvement of exercise tolerance was greater in those with a greater decrease of hs-CRP levels and higher baseline CRP levels, an effect regardless of cholesterol level achieved. This is the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that treatment for 6 months with pravastatin caused a significant
Acknowledgment
A special acknowledgment is given to the participants for their cooperation and commitment to the trial.
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Cited by (128)
Effect of Statins on COPD: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
2017, ChestCitation Excerpt :All the trials, except one,4 recruited patients with COPD without recent statin use. Four of the 10 studies excluded participants with CVD,4,11,15,16 and eight enrolled only stable patients with COPD without a recent exacerbation.4,5,14-18,20 Four statin drugs were investigated in these trials: simvastatin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, and pravastatin.
This work was supported by Grants CMFHT 9501, CMFHR9502, CMFHR9503, and CM-TMU9601 from the Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan; and by Grant NSC 95-2314-B-384-009 from the National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China. Pravastatin was in part a generous gift from Sankyo Company, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.