[Lipid status and basal steroid hormone level following 16 weeks of lovastatin therapy in primary hypercholesterolemia].

We examined the effect of a 16 week therapy with the HMG CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin in 29 patients (mean age 43 years) with primary hypercholesterolemia. All patients had cholesterol levels above 250 mg/dl (mean 348 +/- 96 mg/dl) inspite of a lipid lowering diet and a therapy with conventional lipid lowering drugs during a three month screening period. After 4 weeks on placebo 20 mg lovastatin was given orally for 4 weeks. If total cholesterol exceeded 200 mg/dl the dose of lovastatin was increased monthly by 20 mg up to the maximal dose of 80 mg/day. After 16 weeks lipid values changed compared with the placebo period: total-cholesterol -25%, triglycerides -8.6%, LDL-cholesterol -31%, APO B -25%, HDL-cholesterol +5.8%, APO AI +0.8%, total-cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol -25%. There was a significant improvement of lipid parameters after lovastatin therapy compared with conventional lipid lowering drugs at the end of the screening period. Lovastatin was well tolerated. A small and reversible rise of transaminases and/or creatinine kinase was observed in 6 patients. Basal levels of ACTH in the morning increased significantly during lovastatin therapy within the normal range. This observation was more frequent in females (10/12) than in males (10/17).