• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

After heart attack, 'statin' drugs save lives

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 13:35 CDT

By Anthony J. Brown, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Previous studies have already shown that people who have a heart attack do better if they're prescribed a statin drug (such as Lipitor or Zocor, for example) when they leave the hospital. Now, new research suggests that the sooner these agents are started after admission to the hospital the better.

In a study reported in the American Journal of Cardiology, starting statin therapy within 24 hours of admission for a heart attack markedly reduced the risk of early complications and of dying in the hospital.

"This is the largest study to look at whether very early use of statin therapy after (a heart attack) can influence clinical outcomes," Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, from the University of California Los Angeles, told Reuters Health. The results do, in fact, "suggest that statins offer additional protective effects early."

The study involved an analysis of data from 174,635 patients entered in a heart attack database.

The subjects were divided into four groups based on the timing of statin use: begun before the heart attack and continued afterward, begun before the heart attack and discontinued afterward, newly started within 24 hours of the heart attack, and not used at all.

When statin therapy was continued or started within 24 hours of the heart attack, the in-hospital mortality rate was 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively. By contrast, the rate seen with discontinuation or never use of a statin was about 16 percent.

"The ... protective effect that is suggested here may also apply to congestive heart failure," Fonarow noted. "So, we are now involved in a randomized trial looking at the protective effects that statins may provide for patients with heart failure."

SOURCE: American Journal of Cardiology, September 1, 2005.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category