Single-pill fixed-dose combination therapies are highly effective and safe in the study settings. Best clinical and echocardiographic outcomes were noted among patients receiving E/L, R/H and P/A.
Introduction:
Pleiotropic effects of statins have been advocated for remodelling of the vascular wall.
Hypothesis:
Whether statin therapy influences the growth rate of ascending aorta (AA) aneurysms.
Methods:
A total of 1348 patients was referred to our outpatient clinic for initial AA ectasia from September 2005 to December 2010. A propensity score was built to perfectly match (1:1) patients administered (Group A) or not (Group B) with statin therapy. Clinical and echocardiographic follow-up was 100% completed at 3 years after the first visit. Treatment groups were investigated for differences in AA maximum diameter, furthermore rates of survival free from death and/or complications were assessed by Kaplan-Meyer analysis.
Results:
Finally, two fairly-comparable groups of 414 patients each were obtained (Propensity model c-statistic 0.84, p<0.0001). No significant differences were noted in baseline characteristics, mean AA diameters were 40.9±2.6 mm and 40.7±2.5 mm in Group A and B, respectively. At 3-years, similar rates of hypertension control (84±9% vs. 83±11%) were found, whilst growth rate of AA diameter was +22.3±9.4 mm in Group A (+7.4 mm/year) and +26.5±8.4 mm (+8.8 mm/year) in Group B (p=0.0001). Three-year survival free from the composite outcome (death, dissection/rupture, need for operative repair) was found to be significantly improved in Group A (64±4%) rather than in Group B (53±5%), with a log-rank p=0.002 (HR 0.41, 95%CI 0.37 to 0.48).
Conclusions:
In this study, statin treatment is associated with reduced growth rate of ascending aorta aneurysms. The latter resulted in better survival free from complications for patients receiving statins.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.