Data from the IDEAL trial indicate that 80 mg atorvastatin daily is significantly more effective than 20-40 mg simvastatin daily in reducing risk for a second myocardial infarction in patients with a recent infarction, according to a presentation at the annual World Congress of Cardiology.

"Patients who have experienced a recent heart attack are at greater risk for experiencing life-threatening, recurrent events," said Terje Pedersen, MD, Head of the Centre for Preventive Medicine at Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo, Norway, and the lead investigator for IDEAL. "These data suggest the benefit of intensive treatment with Lipitor 80mg in very high-risk heart attack patients. Lipitor 80mg was also well-tolerated in these patients."

In the Incremental Decrease in Endpoints Through Aggressive Lipid Lowering (IDEAL) trial, 8,888 patients with coronary heart disease and moderately elevated cholesterol levels were randomized to either atorvastatin 80 mg or simvastatin 20-40 mg and followed for an average of 4.8 years. The new findings are from an analysis of the 999 patients in IDEAL who experienced a myocardial infarction less than two months prior to entering the study.

The current analysis represents the longest follow-up of patients with a recent myocardial infarction on statin therapy.

Patients who took atorvastatin had a 46 percent reduction in risk for a second myocardial infarction and a 34 percent reduction in risk of major coronary events that included myocardial infarction, cardiac death and cardiac arrest compared with patients who took simvastatin at a dose of 20-40 mg. Atorvastatin also significantly reduced the risk of death, stroke, unstable angina and revascularization by 18 percent compared with simvastatin. The safety profiles were similar between the two groups.

"The often debilitating effects of a heart attack can place a tremendous physical and emotional strain on patients and their families," said Peter Ganz, MD, of Harvard Medical School. "These findings provide new and important information about the potential benefit of intensive treatment with Lipitor in the management of the risk of recurrent, potentially life-threatening cardiac events."