Background: The importance of statins in cardiovascular prevention has been demonstrated in various patient subsets. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of statins on long-term outcomes of Japanese patients undergoing their first coronary revascularization.
Methods and results: A total of 9,225 patients undergoing their first coronary revascularizations during 2000--2002 were divided into 2 groups according to the use of statins at discharge; patients with acute myocardial infarction were not included. Statins was administered to only 28.5% (n=2,630) of the patients. The median follow-up period was 3.5 years. Patients on statin therapy showed lower all-cause (5.2% vs 10.0%; p<0.0001) and cardiovascular (3.2% vs 6.2%; p<0.0001) mortality than those without statins (n=6,595) by Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test. After adjustment by multivariate analysis according to 29 variables, statin therapy remained as an independent predictor of reduced all-cause (relative risk ratio (RR) 0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.59-0.86, p=0.0005) and cardiovascular (RR 0.72, 95% CI 0.56-0.91, p=0.0067) mortality. The validity of RR of statin therapy in multivariate analysis was further confirmed by risk adjustment using propensity scores (all-cause mortality: propensity-adjusted RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.58-0.85, p=0.0003; cardiovascular mortality: propensity-adjusted RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.54-0.89, p=0.0038).
Conclusions: Statin therapy started at hospital discharge was associated with increased chance of survival in Japanese patients undergoing their first coronary revascularization.