A Study to Evaluate the Effect of Rosuvastatin on Intravascular Ultrasound-Derived Coronary Atheroma Burden (ASTEROID)

Introduction

Study characteristics:

• 53 community & tertiary care centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, & Australia
• 507 patients examined at baseline
• 349 patients with interpretable follow-up exam 24 months later

Study methods:

• motorized intravascular ultrasound pullback used to assess coronary atheroma burden
• baseline & 24 examination
• blinded data analysis

Treatment:

• all patients received rosuvastatin, 40 mg/day

Outcome measures:

• % atheroma volume
• change in atheroma volume in 10-mm subsegment with greatest atheroma severity at baseline
• change in normalized total atheroma volume for entire artery

Results:

• baseline (mean) LDL cholesterol 130 +/- 34 mg/dL declined to 61 +/- 20 mg/dL
• baseline HDL cholesterol 43 +/- 11 mg/dL increased to 49 +/- 13 mg/dL
• change in total atheroma volume showed median reduction of 6.8%
• adverse events were infrequent

Study conclusion:

• significant regression of atherosclerosis in patients treated with rosuvastatin, 40 mg/day for 2 years

Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00240318

Published online March 13, 2006

doi:10.1001/jama.295.13.jpc60002

More general terms

• clinical trial

Additional terms

• rosuvastatin (Crestor)