Via PRNewswire, commenting on a new analysis of the TNT Trial:
Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and elevated cholesterol who took Pfizer Inc's cholesterol- lowering medicine Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) experienced improved kidney function, and those improvements were significantly greater among patients taking the highest dose (80 mg). The data, from an analysis of nearly 8,000 patients from the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial, were presented today at the 55th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology and published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "We anticipated that atorvastatin might provide a protective effect and slow the typical decline in kidney function in this patient population, but we didn't expect to see this level of improvement," said Dr. James Shepherd, TNT steering committee member and clinical academic consultant, Department of Pathological Biochemistry, University of Glasgow Medical School. The analysis assessed eGFR, or estimated glomerular filtration rate at the beginning and end of the five-year TNT clinical trial. eGFR is used to measure kidney function -- patients with eGFR of less than 60 mL/min are considered to have chronic kidney disease (CKD). eGFR naturally declines with age. Patients in the TNT study did not experience a decline in eGFR -- patients taking Lipitor 10 mg experienced an improvement in kidney function (5.6 percent) and patients taking Lipitor 80 mg experienced a highly significant increase in kidney function (8.5 percent). Fifty percent of patients taking Lipitor 80 mg were no longer classified as having chronic kidney disease.Technorati Tags: cardiology, tnt trial, lipitor, drugs, kidney disease
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