The Effect of Intensive Statin Therapy on Symptomatic Intracranial Arterial Stenosis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to observe the effect of intensive statin therapy on symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis. METHODS: overall, 120 patients with symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis were admitted to the Xiangyang No.1 People’s Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Xiangyang, China from January 2010 to May 2013. They were randomly divided into three groups and were given different doses of atorvastatin orally for 1 year or more, and followed up for 12 months. The three groups were assessed for clinical end-point event rates and changes in cerebral blood flow value before and after treatment to assess the effectiveness of intensive statin therapy. RESULTS: The incidence rates of end-point cerebrovascular events in the low-dose group (10 mg/d), the general-dose group (20 mg/d) and the intensive treatment group (40 mg/d) were 26.3%, 13.5% and 5.4% respectively during the 12-month follow-up after treatment. There was a significant difference between the low dose group and the intensive treatment group (P<0.05). The relative cerebral blood flow and relative cerebral blood volume of the three groups were significantly higher than those before treatment (P<0.05), and the relative time to peak for the intensive treatment group was shorter than that before treatment (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Atorvastatin at 40 mg/d has a significant advantage compared with atorvastatin at 20 mg/d and 10 mg/d in reducing cerebrovascular events and improving cerebral blood flow.