Statins
Introduction Statins are widely recognized as the first-line lipid-modifying therapy for reducing cardiovascular risk due to consistent results of numerous randomized primary and secondary prevention clinical trials. They achieve this by inhibiting the hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), which catalyses the first committed step of cholesterol synthesis in the liver. Statins are hepatoselective with extensive first-pass metabolism , which is advantageous because the liver is the main site of cholesterol synthesis, with extrahepatic sites synthesising essential cholesterol. NOTE: There is growing interest in their potential pleiotropic effects , which are actions unrelated or indirectly related to their effect on plasma LDL levels, such as anti-infammatory and antioxidant effects. Administration Time When advising patients on statin use, it is commonly recommended to take statins at night. However, this statement may not apply universally to all statins av...