Kidney function improved in patients with coronary heart disease and elevated cholesterol who took atorvastatin in the TNT Trial, with significantly greater improvements in patients taking the highest dose, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

"We anticipated that atorvastatin might provide a protective effect and slow the typical decline in kidney function in this patient population, but we didn't expect to see this level of improvement," said Dr. James Shepherd, TNT steering committee member and clinical academic consultant, Department of Pathological Biochemistry, University of Glasgow Medical School, UK.

Almost 8,000 patients participated in the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial. The analysis assessed estimated glomerular filtration rate at the beginning and end of the five-year TNT clinical trial. Patients with an estimated rate of less than 60 mL/min are considered to have chronic kidney disease.

Patients in the TNT study did not experience a decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate -- patients who took 10 mg daily experienced an improvement in kidney function (5.6 percent) and patients who took 80 mg experienced a highly significant increase in kidney function (8.5 percent). Fifty percent of patients in the 80 mg per day atorvastatin group were no longer classified as having chronic kidney disease.

TNT was an investigator-led trial coordinated by an independent steering committee and funded by Pfizer. The study enrolled men and women between 35 and 75 years of age in 14 countries. Demographic characteristics for the patients included in this current analysis were similar to the overall TNT population and were well balanced between study arms.