The Myocardial Ischemia Reduction with Acute Cholesterol Lowering (MIRACL) trial: a new frontier for statins?

• Main Authors: Olsson Anders G, Schwartz Gregory G, Waters David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2001-05-01
• Series: Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine
• Subjects: atorvastatin; 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor; myocardial infarction; unstable angina
• Online Access: http://cvm.controlled-trials.com/content/2/3/111

<p>Abstract</p> <p>The Myocardial Ischemia Reduction with Acute Cholesterol Lowering (MIRACL) Trial tested the hypothesis that intensive lowering of cholesterol with atorvastatin (80 mg/day) initiated 24-96 h after an acute coronary syndrome would, over 4 months, reduce the incidence of the composite endpoint of death, nonfatal infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest, and recurrent symptomatic myocardial ischemia with new objective symptoms requiring emergency rehospitalization. This primary composite endpoint was reduced from 17.4% to 14.8% (<it>P</it> = 0.048) among the 3086 patients enrolled. The results of MIRACL suggest that patients with acute coronary syndromes should begin to receive this treatment before leaving hospital, irrespective of baseline levels of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol.</p>