Last Updated: 2003-06-03 12:41:59 -0400 (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Treating kidney transplant patients with the cholesterol-lowering drug fluvastatin might cut their risk of premature death from heart problems, according to study results released Monday.

Heart disease is a serious risk for people who receive kidney transplants. Many have pre-existing cardiovascular problems, and the drugs they are given to avoid transplant rejection can worsen old problems or generate new ones.

In the new study, fluvastatin appeared to lower transplant recipients' risk of cardiac death -- although it failed to make a dent in overall death rates.

"We have demonstrated that it is safe to use fluvastatin in this complicated population," study author Dr. Hallvard Holdaas of Norway's National Hospital in Oslo told Reuters Health.

In a study sponsored by Novartis Pharma AG, which sells fluvastatin as Lescol, Holdaas and colleagues tested whether the drug reduced heart attacks and other cardiac complications in 2,102 kidney-transplant recipients.

Half the patients were treated with fluvastatin, and the rest were given inactive treatment with a placebo. All were followed for five to six years.

Patients given the drug were 35 percent less likely to die from cardiac causes or to suffer a non-fatal heart attack during the study, according to findings published online by The Lancet.

"Treatment with fluvastatin reduced the risk of cardiac death by 38 percent and of definite non-fatal (heart attack) by 32 percent," the researchers report.

However, the study did not find a statistically significant difference in the rates of cardiac surgery or the overall death rates in the two patient groups.

Previous research, Holdaas and his colleagues note, has shown the benefits of cholesterol-lowering statins in patients with mild kidney failure and a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease.

Their study is currently in a pre-planned two-year extension stage in which both groups of patients are receiving treatment.