Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effectiveness of simvastatin/aspirin combination in the treatment of coronary heart disease in the elderly, and its effect on cardiac function and levels of inflammatory factors

Jinya Lu¹ , Hongli Cai¹, Yefei Li², Jiayi Chen¹

¹Department of Geriatrics, Nantong First People's Hospital, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, China; ²Department of Cardiology, Nantong First People's Hospital, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, China.

For correspondence:- Jinya Lu Email: lujinya590@163.com

Accepted: 27 April 2022 Published: 31 May 2022

Citation: Lu J, Cai H, Li Y, Chen J. Effectiveness of simvastatin/aspirin combination in the treatment of coronary heart disease in the elderly, and its effect on cardiac function and levels of inflammatory factors. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(5):1095-1100 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v21i5.26

© 2022 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of simvastatin plus aspirin in the treatment of coronary heart disease in the elderly, and its effect on cardiac function and inflammatory factor levels.

Methods: Eighty-seven identified elderly patients with coronary heart disease who were admitted to Nantong First People's Hospital, Nantong, China between January 2020 and June 2021 were recruited and assigned at a ratio of 1:1 to receive either conventional treatment (group A) or simvastatin plus aspirin (group B). The clinical endpoint was treatment efficacy.

Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups in respect of their baseline data (p > 0.05). Simvastatin plus aspirin was associated with a significantly higher treatment efficacy versus conventional treatment (p < 0.05). The patients, after joint therapy, had more cases of grade I cardiac function and fewer cases of grade III cardiac function, compared with conventional treatment group (p < 0.05). The application of simvastatin plus aspirin resulted in lower levels of triglycerides (TGs), total cholesterol (TC), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) than the conventional treatment (p < 0.05). Simvastatin plus aspirin was also associated with lower levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and hypersensitive-c-reactive-protein (hs-CRP) when compared with conventional treatment (p < 0.05). Furthermore, simvastatin plus aspirin produced a similar incidence of adverse events with conventional treatment (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Simvastatin/aspirin combination therapy is effective in the treatment of coronary heart disease in the elderly. It efficiently lowers glucose levels, lipid metabolism, and inflammatory factors, but enhances the cardiac function of patients.

Keywords: Coronary heart disease, Simvastatin, Aspirin, Inflammatory factors, Cardiac function