Statin intensity and risk for cardiovascular events after heart transplantation

Aims: Statins improve survival and reduce rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy after heart transplantation (HT). The impact of different statin intensities on clinical outcomes has never been assessed. We set out to determine the impact of statin exposure on cardiovascular outcomes after HT.

Methods and results: We performed a retrospective study of 346 adult patients who underwent HT from 2006 to 2018. Statin intensity was determined longitudinally after HT based on American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guidelines. The primary outcome was the time to the first primary event defined as the composite of heart failure hospitalization, myocardial infarction, revascularization, and all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes included time to significant rejection and time to moderate-severe cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Adverse events were evaluated for subjects on high-intensity statin therapy. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the relationship between clinical variables, statin intensity, and outcomes. Most subjects were treated with low-intensity statin therapy although this declined from 89.9% of the population at 1month after HT to 42.8% at 5years after HT. History of ischaemic cardiomyopathy, significant acute rejection, older donor age, and lesser statin intensity (p ≤ 0.001) were associated with reduced time to the primary outcome in a multivariable Cox model. Greater intensity of statin therapy was most beneficial early after HT. There were no statin-related adverse events for the 14 subjects on high-intensity statin therapy.

Conclusions: Greater statin intensity was associated with a reduction in adverse cardiovascular outcomes after HT.