Background-The clinical benefits of lipid lowering with statins are attributed to changes in plaque composition leading to lesion stability, but supporting clinical data from human studies are lacking. Therefore, we investigated the effect of 3 months of pravastatin treatment on composition of human carotid plaques removed during carotid endarterectomy. Methods and Results-Consecutive patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenosis received 40 mg/d pravastatin (nϭ11) or no lipid-lowering therapy (nϭ13; control subjects) for 3 months before scheduled carotid endarterectomy.
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