Research Article Critique

Research Article Critique
Pharmacy Care IV


28/02/2010

Review of Journal Article
8Bibliography
Stein, Evan, Kristina Strutt, Harry Southworth, Peter Diggle, and Miller Elinor. (2003) Comparison of Rosuvastatin Versus Atorvastatin in Patients With Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia. Elsevier: Article Locator.   92, 1287-1293.

9Problem

Rosuvastatin is a new statin that at doses of 1 to 80 mg once daily, has been shown to produce dose-dependent   mean reductions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.   This has been viewed in up to 65% of patients with primary mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia.  

Comments: The title is related to the problem; however some of the study participants were not identified as having HFH. The average reader could easily be misled by the findings in this paper.

10Review of Literature

The authors cited information that was not relevant to the paper. For example, source number 4 within the paper refers to the process of preparative ultracentrifugation. This does not correspond to the source number 4 cited with the other sources. In addition, information was used from sources that were not cited. Such citations were also irrelevant and proved to be   noncohesive in relation to the information written. For example, “The baseline mean and median levels were similar to those reported in studies of non-FH patients on statin therapy”. Reference 17, dealt with the roles of CRP and inflammation in patients, but this was   not in relation to patients with Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia, or treatment with statins. The study seemed ineffective and incomprehensible.

11Objectives

The study consisted of 623 total patients, 187 persons were randomized to take Atorvastatin and 436 were taking Rosuvastatin.

Comment: The experimentation is slightly skewed it is not evenly distributed to test subjects.   Several parameters that contribute to hypercholesterolemia such as age, sex, and ethnicity were... [continues]

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