Statins After a Heart Attack

Ivanhoe Newswire
Tuesday, September 26, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Giving heart attack patients early intensive therapy with statin drugs may reduce their risk of dying and having other heart problems. Statins are common drugs used to lower cholesterol.

Researchers from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., analyzed data from 13 previous studies that looked at starting statin therapy within 14 days of when a patient is hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome. Acute coronary syndrome includes several conditions that involve chest pain or other symptoms caused by a lack of blood flow to the heart muscle. It is the most common cause of heart attack.

"This systematic review provides evidence that early, intensive therapy with statins is associated with a reduction of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, particularly cardiovascular death, unstable angina and revascularization when prescribed within 14 days of hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome," write the authors. "These benefits took more than four months to begin to accrue and were sustained for two years. During these two years, there was slightly less than a 20-percent reduction in the risk of experiencing an adverse coronary event."

Doctors typically prescribe statins to lower cholesterol levels, and they are known to help patients with heart disease in general. They may also prevent blood clotting, reduce blood pressure, and stabilize the amount of plaque build-up in arteries, which could help patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Overall, researchers report they found serious side effects from taking statins were rare.

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SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2006;166:1814-1821