Baseline Characteristics
The baseline characteristics comparisons between the atorvastatin 40mg
group (n=475) and the atorvastatin 80mg group (n=151) are presented inTable 1 . About 97% of the patients included in the analyses
were male with a mean age of 50 ± 9 years. Most of the patients
originate from Asia (72.7%) and the Middle East (24.3%) (Table
1 ). In addition, diabetes, hypertension, history of smoking, and family
history of CAD were highly prevalent in the studied population with the
following proportions: 47.3%, 40.6%, 46.8%, and 15.5%, respectively.
These characteristics were balanced between the two study groups.
However, history of a previous CAD was significantly more prevalent in
the atorvastatin 40mg group compared to the 80mg group (13.5% vs. 6%;
P = 0.012).
The mean LDL-C level in the atorvastatin 80mg group was 130 ± 44.7 mg/dL
compared to 110 ± 41.9 mg/dL in the atorvastatin 40mg group
(P<0.001), while the baseline levels of liver enzymes were
significantly lower in the atorvastatin 80mg group (Table 1 ).
Sixty percent of the patients were admitted with the diagnosis of STEMI,
while 33.5% had NSTEMI. Around 80% of the patients underwent PCI with
the proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) as the most common
identified culprit lesion (36.3%). The atorvastatin 80mg group had a
higher prevalence of STEMI events compared to the atorvastatin 40mg
group (76.8% vs. 54.9%; P<0.001). Similarly, more patients
in the atorvastatin 80mg group underwent PCI compared to the 40mg group
(87.4% vs. 75.4%; P=0.002). The implantation of drug-eluting stents
(DES) was more frequent in the atorvastatin 80mg arm compared to the
40mg arm (74.2% vs. 62.9%; P=0.035).
The use of other medications for ACS was similar in both groups, as
shown in Table 2 . Almost 100% of the patients in both groups
were prescribed aspirin and P2Y12 inhibitors, while
71.4% of the patients in the atorvastatin 40mg group compared to 66.9%
of those in the atorvastatin 80mg group were prescribed an
angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin II
receptor blocker (ARB), and more than 90% of the patients in both
groups received a beta-blocker.