The Multicenter Atorvastatin Plaque Stabilization (MAPS) Study

The impact on cardiovascular events achieved by statin therapy seems to be mostly attributable to the cholesterol-lowering effect with a highly debated contribution of the lipid-independent pleiotropic effects. However, a short-term benefit has been documented for patients treated with statins in acute coronary syndromes and other clinical settings. These observations strengthened the hypothesis of additional, so-called pleiotropic actions of statins. The investigators therefore sought to investigate how different lipid-lowering strategies (non-statin therapy, low-dose statin and high-dose statin) affects cellular composition of carotid plaque over a short-term period of three months. Specifically the investigators tried and dissect the LDL-C lowering impact on plaque cellular composition as compared to the lipid-independent contribution on plaque macrophage and smooth muscle cells.