A MAJOR trial of a cholesterol-lowering drug has ended early after dramatic reductions in illness and death were seen in treated patients.

The study was carried out in part by Glasgow-based cardiology experts and involved 18,000 patients from 26 countries, including almost 3000 in the UK.

It recorded a 54% fall in heart attack risk and 48% in strokes. The combined risk of heart attack, stroke and heart-related death fell by 47%, as did the odds of undergoing surgical procedures.

Doctors said the study might lead millions more people across the world to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

It was stopped six months early by independent safety monitors because the benefits were so pronounced it was considered unethical to keep giving some patients a placebo.

Statins are currently offered only to people with a moderate- to-high risk of a cardiovascular "event".

The Jupiter trial investigated the effects of rosuvastatin on patients with low to normal cholesterol levels but raised concentrations of an inflammation protein believed to be a marker of future heart problems.

Normally, the patients would not be considered at risk of a heart attack, stroke, or dying from a heart-related cause.

Yet those receiving medium doses of the drug, sold under the brand name Crestor, experienced far fewer adverse heart events than those given a non-active placebo.

The benefits were nearly twice what doctors expect from statins among patients with high cholesterol.

Dr Paul Ridker, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who led the study, said: "Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in men and women with normal cholesterol.

"We can no longer assume a patient with low cholesterol is a safe patient."