Table 2.

Clinical trials on the anti-inflammatory effects of statins

Disease entity	Experimental design (number of patients)	Observed effects	Statin	Reference
Coronary artery disease	Prospective pretreatment (n = 5742)	Reduction in CRP serum levels by almost 15%	Lovastatin	62
Coronary artery disease	Prospective pretreatment prior percutaneous coronary interventions (n = 1552)	Statins improved survival in patients in the highest CRP levels	Multiple statins	61
Multiple sclerosis	Prospective study, statins given daily over 6 months (n = 30)	Significant reduction of contrast-enhancing brain lesions by MRI	Simvastatin	17
Multiple sclerosis	Prospective phase II open-label study statin ± IFN-β (n = 41)	MRI analysis indicates a possible beneficial effect of atorvastatin no major toxicity	Atorvastatin	18
Rheumatoid arthritis	Double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial (n = 116)	CRP and ESR declined, Swollen joint count reduced, clinical response in 31%	Atorvastatin	19
SLE	Prospective analysis, non-randomized (n = 64 treated, 24 untreated)	Significant increase in flow-mediated dilation	Atorvastatin	22
Chronic GVHD	Prospective open trial, phase I, non-randomized (n = 18)	Clinical response in 30%, trend towards Th2 cytokines in responder group	Pravastatin	20
Acute GVHD	Retrospective analysis, acute GVHD (n = 49)	Significantly reduced GVHD incidence in statin group, no increase in leukaemia relapse	Multiple statins	45

CRP, C-reactive protein; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; GVHD, graft-versus-host disease; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus; Th2, T helper type 2.