High-dose Lipitor therapy cuts risk of hospitalizations for heart failure

Patients with coronary heart disease who took Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) 80 mg tablets reduced their risk of hospitalizations due to heart failure compared to patients taking the 10 mg dose of Lipitor, according to a new analysis of a subset of patients from the five-year TNT (Treating to New Targets) study, published in today's issue of Circulation.

"These results show that patients with a history of heart failure who were treated with Lipitor 80 mg dose significantly reduced their chances of hospitalizations for heart failure," said Dr. Rochelle Chaiken, vice president of Pfizer's CV Metabolic group. "This important new information for physicians and patients adds to what has been shown about the cardiovascular efficacy of Lipitor in reducing the risk of events like heart attacks, strokes and revascularization procedures."

The analysis showed that patients with heart disease who took Lipitor 80 mg dose achieved significant reductions in the risk of hospitalizations due to heart failure by 26 percent. For those patients with a history of heart failure, Lipitor 80 mg significantly reduced their risk of hospitalization by 41 percent.

"These findings have important implications for the management of these high-risk patients," said Dr. David Waters, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "Hospitalizations due to heart failure are a major contributor to growing healthcare costs in the United States."

Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization for adults over 65 in the United States. Patients hospitalized once for heart failure face a substantially greater risk of being hospitalized for the condition again and a greater risk of death. The estimated total cost of heart failure in 2007 in the United States is $33.2 billion ($30.2 billion direct and $3 billion indirect costs).

Heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood to keep up with the body's needs. Nearly 5 million Americans and 6.5 million Europeans live with heart failure, and nearly 1 million new cases are diagnosed each year worldwide. Patients who develop heart failure often have other health conditions or behaviors that affect how the heart works, such as damage from a heart attack, having high blood pressure, smoking, being overweight, eating foods high in fat and cholesterol, not exercising and having diabetes.

Of the 10,000 patients in the overall TNT study:

• The incidence of hospitalizations due to heart failure was 2.4 percent in patients who took Lipitor 80 mg dose and 3.3 percent in patients who took Lipitor 10 mg dose.

Sub analyses of these patients showed:

• Among those with a history of heart failure (781 patients), the incidence of hospitalizations for heart failure was 10.6 percent in patients who took Lipitor 80 mg compared to 17.3 percent in patients who took the 10 mg dose.
• In patients without a history of heart failure, the rates of hospitalization due to heart failure were lower compared to those with a history of heart failure (1.8 percent for patients who took the 80 mg dose versus 2.0 percent for patients who took the 10 mg dose). The difference between treatment groups was not statistically significant.