Benefit of Early Statin Initiation within 48 Hours after Admission in Statin-Naïve Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background and objectives: Although current guidelines recommend early initiation of statin in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), there is no consensus for optimal timing of statin initiation.

Methods: A total of 3,921 statin-naïve patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention were analyzed, and divided into 3 groups according to statin initiation time: group 1 (statin initiation <24 hours after admission), group 2 (24-48 hours) and group 3 (≥48 hours). We also made 3 stratified models to reduce bias: model 1 (<24 hours vs. ≥24 hours), model 2 (<48 hours vs. ≥48 hours) and model 3 (<24 hours vs. 24-48 hours). The endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACE; composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction and target-vessel revascularization) during median 3.8 years.

Results: During follow-up, incidence of MACE was lower in early statin group in both model 1 (14.3% vs. 18.4%, hazard ratio [HR], 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-0.91; p=0.002) and model 2 (14.6% vs. 19.7%, HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67-0.97; p=0.022). After propensity-score matching, results remained unaltered. Statin initiation <24 hours reduced MACE compared to statin initiation ≥24 hours in model 1. Statin initiation <48 hours also reduced MACE compared to statin initiation later in model 2. However, there was no difference in incidence of MACE between statin initiation <24 hours and 24-48 hours) in model 3.

Conclusions: Early statin therapy within 48 hours after admission in statin-naïve patients with AMI reduced long-term clinical outcomes compared with statin initiation later.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02385682.