Cardiology News & Articles

1 Statin Therapy and Levels of Hemostatic Factors in a Healthy Population: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, April 10, 2013
Adams NB et al. - HMG CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) reduce risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in healthy people. statins reduce levels of inflammation biomarkers, however the mechanism for reduction in VTE risk is unknown. In a large cohort of healthy people, the authors studied associations of statin use with plasma hemostatic factors related to VTE risk. Findings of lower D-dimer, factor VIII and C-reactive protein levels with statin use suggest hypotheses for ...

2 Statin Use in Giant Cell Arteritis: A Retrospective Study The Journal of Rheumatology, April 3, 2013
Schmidt J et al. - To examine the association between statin use and giant cell arteritis (GCA); to compare the clinical features and disease course of GCA among statin users and nonusers. Patients using statins may be less likely to develop GCA compared to patients who are not using statins. statin use does not appear to modify the clinical presentation or the course of the disease. Methods For this retrospective study, the authors reviewed the medical records of all patients ...

3 Treatment with statins and ischemic stroke severity Neurology, April 25, 2013
Martinez-Sanchez P et al. - The authors examine the effects of pretreatment with statins at high doses (40 mg of rosuvastatin or 80 mg of any other statin) and low to moderate doses ( Methods Observational study of IS admissions to the stroke unit over a 3-year period (2008–2010). Mild stroke severity was defined as NIH Stroke Scale score ≤5 on admission. Multivariable regression models and matched propensity score analyses were used to quantify the association of ...

4 The impact of statin use on lipid levels in statin-naive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) vs. non-RA subjects: Results from a population-based study Arthritis Care & Research , April 17, 2013
Myasoedova E et al. - To examine lipid profiles among statin-naive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and those without RA before and after the initiation of statins. Patients with RA had lower TC and LDL levels before statin initiation and lower likelihood of achieving therapeutic LDL goals following statin use than the non-RA subjects. Some RA disease characteristics, in particular ESR at baseline, may have an adverse impact on achieving therapeutic LDL goals. ...

5 Statin Therapy in the Reduction of Cardiovascular Events in Patients Undergoing Intermediate-Risk Noncardiac, Nonvascular Surgery Clinical Cardiology, May 14, 2013
Raju MG et al. – Hydroxymethylglutaryl–coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) reduce perioperative cardiac events in high–risk patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery. However, there is paucity of data on the role of statins in patients undergoing intermediate–risk noncardiac, nonvascular surgery (NCNVS). statin use in the perioperative period was associated with a reduction in cardiovascular adverse events and 30–day all–cause mortality in patients undergoing intermediate–risk NCNVS. ...

6 Statin use in relation to prostate cancer outcomes in a population-based patient cohort study The Prostate, May 2, 2013
Geybels MS et al. - Authors investigated associations between statin use begun before prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and PCa recurrence/progression and PCa-specific mortality (PCSM) in a prospective, population-based cohort study. statin use begun before PCa diagnosis was unrelated to PCa recurrence/progression but was associated with a decrease in risk of PCSM. Methods The analysis included 1,001 PCa patients diagnosed in 2002–2005 in King County, Washington. ...

7 Preprocedural statin therapy, inflammation and myocardial injury in low-risk stable coronary artery disease patients submitted to coronary stent implantation Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, April 19, 2013
Greque GV et al. - Evaluate if statin therapy prior to elective coronary stent implantation (CSI) reduces the plasma levels of markers of inflammation and of myocardial necrosis in low-risk stable coronary artery disease patients (CAD). Pretreatment with statin attenuates procedural inflammation, denoted by markedly lower increases of CRP and IL-6 levels, in elective CSI within low-risk stable CAD patients. Periprocedural myocardial injury was irrelevant and was not ...

8 Effect of pre-procedural statin therapy on myocardial no-reflow following percutaneous coronary intervention: a meta analysis Chinese Medical Journal, May 6, 2013
Xiang-dong L et al. - Successful revascularization of coronary artery disease, especially ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), does not always mean optimal myocardial reperfusion in a portion of patients because of no-reflow phenomenon. The authors hypothesized that statins might attenuate the incidence of myocardial no-reflow when used before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The purpose of this study was to summarize the evidence of ...

9 Association of statin use with risk of dementia: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies Geriatrics and Gerontology International, March 7, 2013
Song Y et al. - statins are a class of medications that reduce cholesterol by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, which were thought to have a positive impact on dementia. Findings of the present meta-analysis show that statin use was associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Methods The authors carried out the present meta-analysis to investigate whether statins might be associated with a reduction on risk of ...

10 Use and misuse of statins after ACS: analysis of a prescription database of a community setting of 2,042,968 subjects European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, April 8, 2013
Maggioni AP et al. - The aim of this study is to assess in a community setting how patients discharged alive after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are treated with statins. Specifically, the rate of prescription, the dosages, and 1-year adherence have been evaluated. In a community setting, the rate of prescription of statins seems to be satisfactory. However, the dosages of statins suggest that the recommendation to use intensive statin treatment seems to be not adequately followed. ...