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Effects of statin therapy on abdominal aortic aneurysm growth: a meta-analysis and meta-regression of observational comparative studies
European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 08/01/2012
Evidence Based Medicine
Clinical Article
Takagi H et al. – Statin therapy is likely effective in prevention of the growth of small abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), and may be more beneficial as the baseline diameter increases.
Methods- Study–specific estimates (standardized mean differences [SMDs]) were combined in the fixed– and random–effects model.
- Seven adjusted and 4 unadjusted observational comparative studies enrolling 4647 patients with a small AAA were identified.
- Pooled analysis of all 11 studies suggested a significant reduction in AAA growth rate among patients assigned to statin therapy versus no statin (SMD, –0.420; 95% confidence interval [CI], –0.651 to –0.189).
- Combining the 7 high–quality studies providing adjusted data for growth rates generated an attenuated but still statistically significant result favoring statin therapy (SMD, –0.367; 95% CI, –0.566 to –0.168).
- The meta–regression coefficient for the baseline diameter was statistically significant (–0.096; 95% CI, –0.132 to –0.061).