Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease with Pravastatin in Men with Hypercholesterolemia

Another of "My Favorite Articles"

I started this series with a case control trial study and then followed it up with a cohort study, so the next one had to be an RCT. Why go back almost 30 years for this one? When I consider the medical innovations during my career as an internist which truly changed the lives of MY patients, the list is not that long. There are the modern HIV medications, H. pylori treatment, the COVID vaccine, and statins. Statins were introduced to the world by the 4S study, published in the Lancet in 1994 and by this, the West of Scotland (WOS) study, published in the NEJM the following year. While the 4S study was earth shattering, it pertained only to people with established coronary artery disease (CAD). It was a study of secondary prevention. The WOS study demonstrated the powerful effect statins could have in primary prevention, halting the progression of CAD in patients without known disease.