Independent Effects of LDL Cholesterol and hsCRP Lowering in the JUPITER Trial

In the 2008 industry-supported JUPITER trial (JW Gen Med Nov 18 2008), healthy people with normal LDL cholesterol levels (<130 mg/dL) and elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP; ≥2 mg/L) who used rosuvastatin (20 mg daily) had significant reductions in adverse cardiovascular endpoints during 2 years of follow-up. These results suggested that the anti-inflammatory properties of statins make them useful for primary prevention in patients without hyperlipidemia.

Now, the JUPITER authors link declines in LDL cholesterol and hsCRP to clinical outcomes. Among 15,548 patients (87% of the JUPITER cohort) whose LDL cholesterol and hsCRP values were recorded after 1 year, rosuvastatin recipients had significant and largely indep…