Abstract
BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether statin treatment could reduce the risk of early vascular events when baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels are already low, at <70 mg/dL, at the time of the index stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study was an analysis of a prospective, multicenter, nationwide registry of consecutive patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke with baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels <70 mg/dL and without statin pre-treatment. An inverse probabilities of treatment weights method was applied to control for imbalances in baseline character-istics. The primary outcome was a composite of stroke (either hemorrhagic or ischemic), myocardial infarction, and all-cause death within 3 months. A total of 2850 patients (age, 69.5±13.4 years; men, 63.5%) were analyzed for this study. In-hospital statin treatment was used for 74.2% of patients. The primary composite outcome within 3 months occurred in 21.5% of patients in the nonstatin group and 6.7% of patients in the statin group (P<0.001), but the rates of stroke (2.65% versus 2.33%), hemorrhagic stroke (0.16% versus 0.10%), and myocardial infarction (0.73% versus 0.19%) were not significantly different between the 2 groups. After inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis, the primary composite outcome was significantly reduced in patients with statin therapy (weighted hazard ratio [HR], 0.54 [95% CI, 0.42– 0.69]). However, statin treatment did not increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (weighted HR, 1.11 [95% CI, 0.10–12.28]). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately three-quarters of the patients with first-ever ischemic stroke with baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels <70 mg/dL received in-hospital statin treatment. Statin treatment, compared with no statin treatment, was significantly associated with a reduced risk of the 3-month primary composite outcomes and all-cause death but did not alter the rate of stroke recurrence.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e030738 |
Journal | Journal of the American Heart Association |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 19 Sep 2023 |
Keywords
- acute ischemic stroke
- early vascular outcomes
- LDL-C
- statin