Effects of atorvastatin and vitamin C on endothelial function of hypercholesterolemic patients

Abstract We tested the effects of vitamin C and atorvastatin treatment on endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilation in 18 hypercholesterolemic patients (ten men and eight women, aged 20–46 years) in comparison with 12 normal volunteers (seven men and five women, aged 20–45 years). The responses of the forearm blood flow (FBF) to acetylcholine (ACh) (7.5, 15 and 30 μg/min), sodium nitroprusside (SNP) (0.8, 1.6, 3.2 μg/min) and L-NMMA (2, 4, 8 μmol/min) were evaluated at baseline and after 1 month of atorvastatin (10 mg/day) treatment. Drugs were infused into the brachial artery and FBF was measured by strain-gauge plethysmography. At baseline, the response to ACh was significantly attenuated in hypercholesterolemics versus controls: at the highest dose (30 μg/min), FBF was 27.0±3.4 versus 11.5±1.9 ml·100 ml tissue −1 ·min −1 respectively ( P −1 ·min −1 ( P