Official Title: “Early Therapeutic Effects of Statins and Fibrates on Unstable Atherosclerotic Plaques: a Randomised Microarray-Study on Endarterectomy Specimens of Human Carotid Arteries”

Rupture of unstable atherosclerotic plaques is the underlying pathophysiologic mechanism of acute coronary syndromes and thus also of perioperative myocardial ischemia. Lipid lowering drugs such as statins and fibrates have been shown to improve the outcomes of patients with atherosclerosis. This is not only mediated through their therapeutic actions on lipid metabolism, but relies on a multitude of pleiotropic effects of these substances. One of the most interesting of these effects is the stabilisation of atherosclerotic plaques.

To investigate these effects in a perioperative setting, patients scheduled for thromboendarterectomy of the carotid artery will be recruited. They will be randomised to receive either atorvastatin 10mg/d, gemfibrozil 1200mg/d or placebo for two weeks preoperatively. Specimens of carotid plaques will be obtained intraoperatively. After microscopic characterisation of plaques, DNA-microarray analyses will be done to gain insights into the transcriptional regulation and expression profiles of various types of atherosclerotic plaques under different pharmacological circumstances (stable or unstable with statin/fibrate/placebo).

Study Type: Interventional

Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Control, Parallel Assignment, Efficacy Study

Intervention(s) in this Clinical Trial

• Drug: Atorvastatin
• Drug: Gemfibrozil

Primary Measures

• expression profile in atherosclerotic plaque

Inclusion Criteria:

• atherosclerosis
• stenosis of carotid artery

Exclusion Criteria:

• therapy with statine or fibrate
• pregnancy

Gender Eligibility for this Clinical Trial: Both

Minimum Age for this Clinical Trial: 18 Years

Maximum Age for this Clinical Trial: N/A

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted for this Clinical Trial?: No

Lead Sponsor: University Hospital Muenster

Overall Clinical Trial Officials and Contacts

Gregor Theilmeier, MD Principal Investigator Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital Münster  

Information obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov on August 20, 2008

Link to the current ClinicalTrials.gov record. http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00243672

Study ID Number: 04-Anast-05

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00243672

Health Authority: Germany: Ethics Commission