Welcome to InCirculation.net
InCirculation.net is a professional cardiovascular resource intended for a global audience of specialists, generalists, researchers, and other healthcare professionals
Cardiovascular news provides daily news updates to help you stay informed.
Pacemaker data support statin anti-arrhythmic properties
8 August 2008
MedWire News: Statin treatment may help to prevent atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence, suggests an observational study of patients implanted with a pacemaker.
"Randomized clinical trials are warranted to test the hypothesis that statins prevent AF in patient populations at risk for AF," say Anne Gillis (University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and colleagues.
As reported in the European Heart Journal, the team analyzed memory data from pacemakers implanted in 185 patients who had experienced at least three episodes of AF during a previous year. In all, 85% of patients experienced recurrence during the year after pacemaker implantation.
Patients who suffered AF recurrence were significantly more likely to be on statin therapy than those who did not, at 54% versus 25% (p=0.0004).
The probably of patients experiencing AF recurrence was 0.63 in those taking statins, compared with 0.85 in those not taking statins, which corresponds to a 22% reduction in the absolute risk for recurrence.
Patients taking statins were more likely to be male, taking a beta blocker or Class I/III anti-arrhythmic drug, and to have coronary artery disease. After accounting for these variables plus age, hypertension, and left ventricular ejection fraction, statin use remained significantly associated with a 67% relative reduction in the risk for AF (p=0.007).
In an accompanying editorial, Carsten Israel (JW Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany) said: "The results are particularly valuable because a continuously active AF monitor in the form of a pacemaker with a highly reliable AF detection algorithm was used."
He explained that conventional diagnostic monitoring fails to detect about 70% of AF recurrences.
Israel stressed, however, that statins failed to prevent 63% of AF recurrences in the current study cohort, which had established paroxysmal or persistent AF. The study therefore "raises the question of whether the use of statins at an earlier stage (eg, before documentation of the first AF episode) may be valuable in preventing AF, which would best be addressed, again, using implantable devices as monitors," he concluded.
