Does Improved Endothelial Vasodilator Function Matter?
From the Cardiology Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Correspondence to Richard O. Cannon III, MD, National Institutes of Health, Bldg 10, Room 7B15, 10 Center Dr MSC-1650, Bethesda, MD 20892-1650. E-mail cannonr@nih.gov Key Words: Editorials cholesterol vasodilation endothelium statins Lipid-lowering therapy with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) has been shown in large clinical trials to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in otherwise healthy hypercholesterolemic subjects and in patients with coronary artery disease. The magnitude of risk reduction is greatest in individuals with the highest pretreatment cholesterol levels, although those with mild elevation in LDL cholesterol may also benefit from statin therapy. Because angiographic trials with lipid-lowering therapy have shown little reduction in atherosclerotic plaque size, alternate mechanisms of therapeutic benefit to the arterial wall have been propo
