Association of statin therapy with clinical outcomes in patients with vasospastic angina: Data from Korean health insurance review and assessment service

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 30;14(1):e0210498. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210498. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

There is conflicting evidence for the clinical benefit of statin therapy in patients with vasospastic angina (VSA). We investigated the association of statin therapy with clinical outcomes in relatively large populations with clinically suspected VSA from a nationwide population-based database. Data were collected from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment database records of 4,099 patients that were in an intensive care unit with VSA between January 1, 2008 and May 31, 2015. We divided the patients into a statin group (n = 1,795) and a non-statin group (n = 2,304). The primary outcome was a composite of cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The median follow-up duration was 3.8 years (interquartile range: 2.2 to 5.8 years). Cardiac arrest or AMI occurred in 120 patients (5.2%) in the statin group, and 97 patients (5.4%) in the non-statin group (P = 0.976). With inverse probability of treatment weighting, there was no significant difference in the rate of cardiac arrest or AMI between the two groups (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-1.30; P = 0.937), or even between the non-statin group and high-intensity statin group (adjusted HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.69-1.70; P = 0.75). The beneficial association of statin use with the primary outcome was consistently lacking across the various comorbidity types. Statin therapy was not associated with reduced cardiac arrest or AMI in patients with VSA, regardless of statin intensity. Prospective, randomized trials will be needed to confirm our findings.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Angina Pectoris / complications
  • Angina Pectoris / drug therapy*
  • Angina Pectoris / ethnology
  • Asian People
  • Coronary Vasospasm / complications
  • Coronary Vasospasm / drug therapy*
  • Coronary Vasospasm / ethnology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / therapeutic use*
  • Insurance, Health / statistics & numerical data*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Myocardial Infarction / complications
  • Myocardial Infarction / diagnosis
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care / methods
  • Outcome Assessment, Health Care / statistics & numerical data
  • Propensity Score
  • Republic of Korea
  • Retrospective Studies

Substances

  • Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors

Grants and funding

Authors SJP, HP, DK, TKP, JP, JC, CRC, KJ, JC, GYS and JHY are employed by and receive salary from Samsung Medical Center. Samsung Medical Center did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.