Cardiovascular pathology leads to high morbidity and mortality in the world. It is known that increased levels of blood cholesterol, particularly LDL closely associated with high-risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure in the future. Therefore, the national guidelines are directed on the prevention of cardiovascular events by lipid-lowering therapy administration in patients from risk groups. The most frequently for primary and secondary prevention are used statins, which are very well tolerated by patients and have a low incidence of side effects. In addition to lipid-lowering effects, statins have several pleiotropic effects – anti-inflammatory, endothelium protection, anti-ischemic and others. However, since 2003, became known facts about the negative impact of statins on carbohydrate metabolism with the development of diabetes. The objective was to evaluate the influence of short-term use of statins on carbohydrate metabolism in patients with cardiovascular diseases.

We examined 48 non-diabetic participants (including 19 males) with arterial hypertension (AH) and coronary heart disease (CHD), which used in complex therapy statins (rosuvastatin – 10mg/d or atorvastatin – 20mg/d). The average age of the patients was 53.2±1.2 years.

Number of patients receiving rozuvastin was 21 persons (43.75%), atorvastatin – 27 persons (56.25%). Carbohydrate metabolism (fasting plasma glucose, mmol/L and HbA1c, %) was evaluated before the start and after 2 months of regular usage of drugs.

Over the period of observation was seen a significant increase of fasting plasma glucose in both groups from 5.2±0.6 to 6.4±0.8mmol/L and HbA1c from 5.1±0.8 to 5.8±0.9% (P=0.005). The most significant changes were observed in hydrocarbon markers in rosuvastatin group where glucose increased by 28% compared with the initial value (P=0.005), and HbA1c – 24.5% (P=0.005), whereas in the atorvastatin group corresponding increment constituted ±20.4% for glucose and HbA1c to 8.3%.