A comparison of the effects of aggressive dose and conventional dose atorvastatin applications on IL-6 and NO levels in patients with acute myocardial infarction

High dose statin medication in acute coronary syndrome cases is a therapy which lowers mortality and morbidity rates. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is produced in higher amounts in acute myocardial infarction (MI) and facilitates myocardial damage. However, secretion of nitric oxide (NO) is depleted. We aimed to compare the effects of conventional dose (10-40 mg/day) and aggressive dose (80 mg/day) atorvastatin medications on IL-6 and NO levels in patients with primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) intervention after acute MI. 50 patients (8 females, 42 males) with the diagnosis of acute MI with ST segment elevation enrolled to the study. Primary PTCA intervention was performed on these patients and consequently either conventional dose (10 to 40 mg/day) or aggressive dose (80 mg/day) atorvastatin medications were given to the patients. Three months later, plasma IL-6 and NO levels were determined and alterations in the groups were evaluated. IL-6 levels decreased from 24.34 ± 12.04 to 11.40 ± 5.79 pg/ml and  from 29.62 ± 17.38 to 12.51  ±  8.95 pg/ ml in conventional dose and aggressive dose regimens respectively (p<0.001). However, NO concentrations increased from 22.90 ± 8.24 to 31.70 ± 7.56 µM in conventional dose and from 19.37 ± 5.60 µM to 34.15 ± 9.60 µM in aggressive dose groups (p < 0.001).   The effects of aggressive dose atorvastatin medication on IL-6 and NO levels were similar to conventional dose application in cases with ST segment elevation acute MI.    Key words: Atorvastatin, interleukin-6, nitric oxide, myocardial infarction.