AIM—To assess the impact of cholesterol lowering on positive exercise stress tests in hypercholesterolaemic patients with normal coronary angiograms.
METHODS—43 non-diabetic patients aged 43-61 years, with total serum cholesterol concentrations of more than 7.75 mmol/l, positive exercise tests, and normal coronary angiograms, were started on the American Heart Association step 1 diet. After 12 weeks these patients were randomly assigned to treatment for another 16 weeks with the diet alone (diet group, n = 20) or with the diet plus lovastatin or simvastatin (statin group, n = 23). After this 28 week run in period, statins were withdrawn and lipid profile tests and exercise tests were done and repeated 20 weeks later.
RESULTS—At week 28, the statin group but not the diet group had significant reductions from baseline (week 12) in plasma total cholesterol (p