Effect of lipid-lowering therapy on vasomotion and endothelial function.

The recent clinical trials of lipid lowering have established the benefit of this therapy in men and women with, or at high risk for, cardiovascular disease. It is now thought that most of the reduction in the risk of clinical events is due to functional rather than anatomic changes in atherosclerotic arteries. Cholesterol-lowering drugs improve endothelial vasomotor function and vascular nitric oxide in patients with coronary artery disease over several months. These changes in vasomotor function may reflect other beneficial changes that are regulated by nitric oxide such as the reduced recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells and a shift in the coagulation balance to favor thrombolysis. These mechanisms may contribute to the reduction in myocardial ischemia and clinical events observed with lipid lowering in patients with vascular disease. Lipid-lowering therapy decreases cardiovascular events and is an important adjunct to coronary revascularization most likely because an improvement in endothelial function prevents the development and destabilization of new atherosclerotic lesions and subsequent ischemic events.