Suppressive effects of standard-dose rosuvastatin therapy on the progression of coronary atherosclerosis in Japanese patients: the APOLLO study

Aim: we used quantitative coronary angiography (qca) to investigate whether coronary plaque progression can be inhibited by controlling lipids with rosuvastatin at japanese standard doses following elective percutaneous coronary intervention (pci).methods: a total of 143 patients who underwent elective pci were randomized to either the rosuvastatin (5 or 2.5 mg/day) or non-statin group. changes from baseline in the minimal lumen diameter (mld) and average lumen diameter (ald) measured using qca were analyzed in both target and non-target lesions.results: the changes in mld and ald from baseline to 24 months in the non-target lesions were significantly smaller in the rosuvastatin group than in the non-statin group (−0.079±0.014 mm vs. −0.135±0.019 mm,p=0.022; −0.062±0.012 mm vs. −0.109±0.016 mm,p= 0.025). the changes in mld from six to 24 months in the target lesions were significantly lower in the rosuvastatin group than in the non-statin group among the patients treated with drug-eluting stents (−0.046± 0.108 mm vs. −0.133±0.108 mm,p=0.009) versus those treated with bare-metal stents (−0.011± 0.094 mm vs. −0.015±0.040 mm,p=0.255).conclusions: the present study demonstrated that the administration of a standard dose of rosuvastatin slows coronary plaque progression and may prevent the late catch-up phenomenon associated with drug-eluting stents in patients who undergo elective pci. © 2014,japan atherosclerosis society. all rights reserved.