Early statin therapy helps kids with inherited high cholesterol

Children with inherited high levels of cholesterol who receive cholesterol-lowering statins in their early years have a lower risk of coronary heart disease than their affected parents, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.

Researchers evaluated the effectiveness and safety of statin treatment in 214 children with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The children, 8- to 18-years-old, continued to receive statins and were evaluated after 10 years.

Researchers reported that at age 30, coronary heart disease survival was 100 percent in the group of young adults who received statins from childhood and 93 percent in the affected parents.

"Our results suggest statin therapy initiated in childhood reduces disease and death from heart disease in patients with FH," said Marjet Braamskamp, M.D., study co-author and a Ph.D. student at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. "After 10 years of treatment, young adult FH patients had not suffered from cardiovascular complaints."