Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/study-finds-statins-benefit-patients-with-no-history-of-heart-problems Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A new study released Sunday at an American Heart Association conference found that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs significantly cut the risk of death from heart problems even in those with low cholesterol and risk factors. Two doctors discusses what the findings mean for patients. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: For years, statins have been given to millions of patients with high cholesterol to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke. Now, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds one of those drugs, Crestor, may even provide significant benefits for those with low cholesterol.It was funded, the study, by the drug's maker, AstraZeneca, but because of its potential impact, it's the subject of much attention at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.To explain the findings and put them in perspective, we turn to two cardiologists who are there: Harlan Krumholz, professor of medicine at Yale University; and Mark Hlatky, a professor of medicine and cardiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, who wrote an editorial about the impact of the study.Dr. Krumholz, let's start with you. What was this study designed to find out? What question were you trying to answer? DR. HARLAN KRUMHOLZ, Yale University: Thanks, Ray. This is a study that sought to determine whether or not we could treat a group of people without heart disease, an apparently healthy group of people, whose cholesterol level was below what the normal — what the guidelines say would merit statins, that is a group that have no current indication for statin. Their cholesterol levels were low.In fact, when you look in the trial, for those of your viewers familiar with these, the bad cholesterol level was about 108, so a level that we would consider within the normal range.And the question was, for these individuals, who had, in addition, another laboratory test that suggested that there was an elevated level of inflammation in their system, something that we think is now associated with hardening of the arteries, atherosclerosis, and puts them at a little bit of an elevated risk, could these individuals with normal cholesterol, a slightly or elevated level of this marker of inflammation in their system, would they benefit from treatment with statins?So this is a new group, a group that wouldn't normally be treated with statins. Would they benefit by treatment with statins?