Statins sustain cardiac victims.

• Position: Heart Medication - Brief Article

Treating heart-attack patients earlier with a more aggressive regimen of cholesterol-lowering medicines may help diminish their chances of sustaining added complications later or dying after their heart attack, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found. The findings show benefits of treating patients who recently have suffered acute coronary syndromes with higher doses of the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins soon after they experience heart-attack symptoms.

In the past, heart-attack patients were stabilized for several weeks or months and placed on low-cholesterol diets before physicians intervened with statin drugs. Patients given statin drugs earlier showed modest improvement in the rate of subsequent death, congestive heart failure, heart attack, and stroke compared with patients who received a...