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Benefit of statins for primary prevention of CVD confirmed
1 July 2009
MedWire News: Results from a large meta-analysis conclusively show the benefits of statin treatment for high-risk patients without prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) on all-cause mortality and major coronary and cerebrovascular events.
It has been suggested that statin therapy is likely to have a preventive effect against future CVD events in patients at high cardiovascular risk, but without established CVD (primary prevention).
However, “to date research has provided ambiguous answers,” say Jasper Brugts (Erasmus MC Thoraxcenter, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and team.
This study took the form of a meta-analysis of 10 trials comprising 70,388 participants in total, of whom 34% were women and 23% had diabetes. The average follow-up period for the included studies was 4.1 years, and the average age of participants was 63 years.
Total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were reduced by a mean of 17.1%, 9.3%, and 25.6%, respectively, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was increased by 3.3% on average.
Inclusion criteria for the trials in this study included being a randomized study of statin treatment versus no statin treatment or placebo, having a mean follow-up of at least 1 year, reporting on mortality or CVD events as a primary outcome, and including at least 80% of people with no prior CVD.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers report that statin treatment significantly reduced the risk for all-cause mortality by 12%, for major coronary events by 30%, and for major cerebrovascular events by 19%, compared with controls.
Of note, there was no evidence of an increased risk for cancer associated with statin treatment.
“Statins improve survival and reduce the risk of major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in people without established CVD,” conclude Brugts et al.
“Given the favorable effects of long-term statin treatment it would be wrong to deny these benefits to people at increased risk for CVD,” they add.
