LONDON--1 Apr--PRNewswire-AsiaNet/InfoQuest ASTEROID Studied the Effect of Intensive CRESTOR(TM) Therapy on Atherosclerosis CRESTOR(TM) (rosuvastatin) is the only statin to show regression of coronary atherosclerosis in a major clinical study. That result, which was based on intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) data from the ASTEROID study, has now been expanded upon by quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) measurements obtained during that study. This is the first time that a statin monotherapyhas achieved regression of atherosclerosis using coronary angiographic data in a major clinical trial. These new data were presented today at the 57th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology and showed that rosuvastatin treatment for 24 months to LDL-C levels well below 70 mg/dL, together with significant increases in HDL-C, produced regression by decreasingpercent diameter stenosis and improving minimum lumen diameter as measured by QCA in coronary disease patients. "The data from these two imaging techniques used in the ASTEROID study, which measured different parameters and were focused on different segments of the coronary arteries, demonstrate similar improvements by QCA and IVUS and are consistent with regression of atherosclerosis with rosuvastatin," said Professor Christie M. Ballantyne, cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicineand the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, Texas, and lead author of the QCA analysis. Michael Cressman, AstraZeneca's Global Medical Science Director for CRESTOR, added, "These data provide confirmation that, in patients with coronary artery disease rosuvastatin 40 mg can achieve regression of coronary atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of heart disease." ASTEROID (A Study To Evaluate the Effect of Rosuvastatin On Intravascular Ultrasound-Derived Coronary Atheroma Burden) was designed to study the effect of rosuvastatin 40 mg in 507 patients who had undergone coronary angiography and who had evidence of coronary artery disease (CAD). The QCA analysis was a secondary endpoint in the ASTEROID study. Angiograms taken at baseline and at the end of the 2 year study were analysed for changes in the percent diameter stenosis (%DS) and the minimum lumen diameter (MLD) using QCA imaging. Key findings of this analysis of the 292 patients with matched stenoses >25% of the lumen diameter at baseline, after taking rosuvastatin 40 mg for 2 years include:-- 53.3% reduction in LDL-C (from 131.5 mg/dL to a mean of 61.1 mg/dL)-- 13.8% increase in HDL-C (from 42.8 mg/dL to 48.3 mg/dL)-- Significant decrease in percent diameter stenosis (from median 35.7% atbaseline to 34.5% at 2 years; mean decrease 1.3%, median decrease 0.5%;p