A placebo control double blind study of effects of atorvastatin + allium hirtifollium on carotid intima media thickness

Objectives: different medications have been developed to treat atherosclerosis. allium hirtifolium (shallot) has different therapeutic properties such as antioxidant effects which make it a possible effective agent in treatment of atherosclerosis. this investigation was designed to see whether or not adding allium hirtifolium to the routine treatment with atorvastatin can have more beneficial effects. methodology: fifty participants having common carotid artery intima media thickness(ccimt) more than 0.80mm were randomly allocated to two equal treatment groups of atorvastatin (40mg daily) + placebo(2 capsules a day) and atorvastatin (40mg daily) + shallot(500mg capsules twice a day). patients were treated for nine months, and then, ccimt was rechecked. pre and post treatment ccimt was compared between and within groups. results: despite no significant difference between two groups in pre-treatment ccimt (p:0.79), post treatment ccimt was significantly lower in case group (0.830±0.05 mm vs. 0.851±0.04, p:0.04). posttreatment ccimt was significantly lower than pre-treatment values in both case and control groups (p <0.0001 and 0.03 respectively). conclusion: this study showed that atorvastatin plus placebo and atorvastatin plus allium hirtifolium both reduced ccimt significantly. however, this ccimt reduction was significantly more in patients treated with allium hirtifolium plus atorvastatin. however, further studies are required to re-evaluate these findings in larger sample size and to determine whether taking shallot alone will produce such effects on ccimt or not.