To check these findings, the Johns Hopkins team selected MESA study participants who met the same criteria set for the JUPITER study. The MESA subgroup came from a pool of 7,000 ethnically diverse adults, including African Americans, Chinese Americans, Caucasians and Hispanics - all monitored at Johns Hopkins and five other medical centers in North America.

A statistical comparison of results showed that few if any heart attacks or strokes would have been prevented within five years had anyone taken the medication, unless there was already some calcium buildup in their blood vessels. In people with moderate calcium buildup, one heart attack would have been averted in every 94 people treated, and one stroke in every 54. For people with higher coronary calcium scores, the numbers of patients one needed to treat to prevent a heart attack or stroke were 24 and 19, respectively, which Blaha says were superior numbers to those in the JUPITER study or any prior statin trial.

According to study co-investigator and cardiologist Roger Blumenthal, M.D., a professor and director of the Ciccarone Preventive Cardiology Center at Johns Hopkins, "statin therapy should not be approached like diet and exercise as a broadly based solution for preventing coronary heart disease. These are lifelong medications with potential, although rare side effects, and physicians should only consider their use for those patients at greatest risk, especially those with high coronary calcium scores."

Blumenthal points out that as many as 5 percent of people on statins develop serious side effects, such as muscle pain. One in 255 will develop diabetes.

Blumenthal recommends that all people monitor their risk factors for heart disease, according to their age and gender, diabetes, blood-cholesterol levels, hypertension and smoking, and if recommended by their physician, get a coronary calcium CT scan to gauge their actual risk.

Coronary heart disease remains the nation's leading cause of death, responsible for one in five deaths in adults in the United States.

Source: Johns Hopkins