Titration patterns with rosuvastatin as compared with other statins in clinical practice: a retrospective observational cohort study using an electronic medical record database.

BACKGROUND

Lipid management in clinical practice has been suboptimal with a significant proportion of patients not achieving recommended cholesterol levels. A reason for low goal attainment may be the limited use of upward dose titration.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to determine if, in routine clinical practice, a lower rate of titration is observed among rosuvastatin patients who achieved the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) target low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goals as compared with patients achieving the target LDL-C goals on other statins.

METHODS

This retrospective database study included the patients, aged > or =18 years, of approximately 3000 physicians across the United States, who were newly prescribed statin treatment from August 2003 to May 2005. Patients were excluded if they started on a maximum dose of statin, were at LDL-C goal at baseline (no clinical reason for titrating), or on fluvastatin (<70 patients). Titration rate with rosuvastatin was compared with other statins. Multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for baseline LDL-C, coronary heart disease risk, treatment duration, and target LDL-C goal attainment.

RESULTS

This study assessed 12,041 patients for upward titration. Of the 5955 eligible patients (mean age, 63 years; male, 47%), 7.2% were prescribed rosuvastatin, 63.5% atorvastatin, 15.3% simvastatin, 7.2% pravastatin, and 6.9% lovastatin. Overall, 4337 patients (72.8%) attained the NCEP ATP III target LDL-C goal. Mean duration of statin treatment was 188 days for rosuvastatin compared with 238 to 260 days for the other statins (all, P < 0.05). Among patients attaining the target LDL-C goal, significantly fewer rosuvastatin patients (8.3%) had titration compared with atorvastatin (17.0%), simvastatin (20.0%), pravastatin (20.7%), and lovastatin (23.5%) (all, P < 0.05). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, patients attaining the target LDL-C goal on other statins were significantly more likely to be titrated as compared with rosuvastatin (odds ratios, 2.0-3.3; P < 0.05). Lower titration rates for rosuvastatin patients were also observed in the total population (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our study found that rosuvastatin patients who attained the NCEP ATP III target LDL-C goal had significantly lower titration rates than patients receiving other statins.