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Statin Therapy Lessens Complications in Angioplasty Patients: Presented at ACC

By Ed Susman

ORLANDO, FL -- March 7, 2005 -- Patients who are taking statin therapy when they go into the catheter laboratory for an angioplasty have better heart-related outcomes than do people who are not taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs, researchers reported here on March 6^th.

"In-hospital mortality was reduced by about 65% among people who were already on statins when they had the procedure performed," said Mandeep Singh, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States.

Dr. Singh and colleagues examined the records of 4,428 patients who received either angioplasty or angioplasty and stents at the Mayo Clinic.

"Long-term administration of statin therapy has been shown to reduce major coronary events and cardiac mortality within randomized clinical trials," he explained. "We hypothesized that statin therapy may reduce major cardiovascular complications among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions."

In the perioperative setting, among 2,052 subjects who had cholesterol levels above 240 mg/dL and were being treated with statins, 5 patients died, compared with 40 patients out of 1,650 with cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dL who died in-hospital during the procedure and 18 patients out of 726 with normal cholesterols who died in the perioperative period.

The differences between the groups was statistically significant at the P <.001 level, said Dr. Singh during a press briefing at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions 2005.

Patients who were being treated with statins also had fewer myocardial infarctions during the procedure, 15% compared to 31% among those not on statins but with high cholesterol and 32% among those with normal cholesterol levels. "There were 50% fewer complications in the patients on statins at the time of the procedure," Dr. Singh said.

After 1 year, however, the difference in mortality was the same for all three groups. Dr. Singh said that was probably due to the fact that patients who are found to have heart disease are prescribed statins and other drugs and lifestyle changes.

"Many patients don't realize they have heart disease until they get chest pains," said Karen Smith, MD, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States, who moderated the press briefing.

Dr. Smith said that statins appear to have a number of qualities that may be advantageous to patients with heart disease, as evidenced by the results of Dr. Singh's study.

Dr. Singh will present the study to the conference on March 8^th.


[Presentation title: Reduction in Mortality and Other Procedural Complications Following Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty in Patients with Hyperlipidemia is Largely Due to Statin Treatment. Abstract 852-3]

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