Impact on the carotid intima-medial thickness and safety of rosuvastatin in Chinese patients with carotid atherosclerosis: a meta-analysis / 中华心血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the efficacy and safety of rosuvastatin in Chinese patients with carotid atherosclerosis.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A systematic search of Pubmed, EMBase, CENTRAL, CBMdisc, CNKI and WANFANG databases up to January 2013 was performed to identify studies comparing rosuvastatin with a placebo or other statins on carotid intima-medial thickness (IMT) with a minimum follow-up of 6 months in Chinese patients. Meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.0 software after the strict evaluation of the methodological quality of the included studies independently by two reviewers.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twenty-eight studies involving 1 392 individuals were included in this review. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) between rosuvastatin and placebo or control on IMT was 0.28 mm (95%CI 0.14-0.42, P < 0.01), with 0.31 mm (95%CI 0.14-0.49, P < 0.01) on 6-8 months and 0.16 mm (95%CI 0.05-0.27, P = 0.005) on 12 months, respectively. Analysis on studies in core journals showed the WMD between rosuvastatin and placebo or control on IMT was 0.18 mm (95%CI 0.09-0.27, P < 0.01). The WMD between rosuvastatin and other statins on IMT was 0.06 mm (95%CI 0.04-0.08, P < 0.01). The WMD between rosuvastatin and placebo or control on plaque score was 0.89 (95%CI 0.78-0.99, P < 0.01). The WMD between rosuvastatin and placebo or control on plaque area was 1.46 (95%CI 0.67-2.25, P < 0.01).Reports of adverse effect were elevated liver enzyme (2.30%, 19/825), elevated muscle enzyme (0.73%, 6/825), muscle aches (0.61%, 5/825).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Rosuvastatin therapy is effective and safe to decrease IMT in Chinese patients with carotid atherosclerosis.</p>