Atorvastatin in Bronchiectasis in Patients With Pseudomonas Aeruginosa
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Statins are a class of drug used to prevent heart attacks and strokes by lowering blood
cholesterol levels. They have also been found to have a beneficial "side effect" of lowering
the level of inflammation in the body. This is thought to be one of the reasons they are
effective in treating heart attacks and strokes. Laboratory experiments have shown that
statins reduce lung inflammation in response to bacteria and this is a promising development
for the treatment of chest infections.
Bronchiectasis is a chronic disabling lung disease characterised by chronic sputum production
and recurrent chest infections. 2/3 of patients are chronically colonised with bacteria
(normally the lungs are sterile) and this leads inflammation in the lung and in the rest of
the body.
There are no effective treatments for bronchiectasis other than antibiotics for chest
infections. With increasing antibiotic use, there is increasing antibiotic resistance and new
treatments for this disease are needed.
The investigators intend to study Atorvastatin in patients with bronchiectasis with
colonization with pseudomonas aeruginosa. The investigators will give Atorvastatin to 16
patients with this disease while 16 patients will receive placebo. This will be a crossover
study where patients will receive atorvastatin or placebo for 3 months, followed by a statin
wash out period of 6 weeks. Thereafter the groups will cross over and the group receiving
atorvastatin will now receive placebo and those receiving placebo will receive atorvastatin
for 3 months. The investigators will measure inflammation in their lungs and in the rest of
their body before and after treatment with atorvastatin. The investigators will also assess
their quality of life and number of chest infections over a 7.5 month period.
This pilot study will determine if there is any role for statins are an anti-inflammatory
agent in patients with bronchiectasis.