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An epidemiological study of the effects of statin use on airflow limitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Respirology, 04/16/2012
Clinical Article
Bando M et al. – This is the first cross–sectional study from Japan that has demonstrated that statin use has a potential impact on airflow limitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods- The authors investigated whether the use or non–use of statins influenced the prevalence of airflow limitation.
- All outpatients who were over the age of 40 years and who regularly visited a primary health care facility were invited to participate.
- Each participant underwent spirometry and completed a questionnaire regarding their clinical status, which was used to screen for COPD.
- A variety of factors that are potentially related to airflow limitation were assessed.
- Of the 853 patients included in the study, 81 (9.5%) had airflow limitation.
- The prevalence of airflow limitation was 2.3% among the 89 patients with a history of statin use, which was five times lower than the prevalence of airflow limitation among patients who had not used statins (10.5%).
- Among the 347 patients with a history of past or current smoking, airflow limitation was not observed in the 30 patients who had used statins.
- However, by multivariate analysis, statin use was not significantly associated with a lower prevalence of airflow limitation.
