ASTEROID Trial

To assess if an extensive lipid lowering therapy with statins could regress coronary atherosclerosis as determined by IVUS imaging.

A Study to Evaluate the Effect of Rosuvastatin on Intravascular Ultrasound-Derived Coronary Atheroma Burden (ASTEROID) was a prospective open-label blinded end-points trial wherein 507 patients, who had a baseline IVUS examination, received at least 1 dose of the study drug rosuvastatin 40 mg/dL and were followed up for 24 months. At the end of 24 months 349 patients had evaluable serial IVUS examinations.

Mean baseline LDL-C reduced by 53.2% and mean HDL-C improved by 14.7%. Also mean atheroma volume for the entire vessel, as assessed by intravascular ultrasound, reduced by 0.98%.

The study showed that treatment with very high intensity statin therapy using rosuvastatin 40 mg/dL reduced LDL-C and improved HDL-C levels significantly resulting in regression of coronary atherosclerosis as measured by IVUS.^[1]