The Association between Statin Medication Use and Intracranial Aneurysm Risk: A Two- Way Mendelian Randomization Study

Abstract

Background Recent observational studies have identified a potential link between statin medication use and the risk of intracranial aneurysms (IAs). However, the causal relationship between these factors is not yet clear. Methods We used a two-way Mendelian randomization approach to examine the relationship between genetically predicted statin medication use and the risk of IAs, as well as the reverse association. We incorporated data from genome-wide association studies of statin medication and IAs in a European population. Our analysis relied on random-effects inverse variance weighted estimation as the primary statistical method. Results Neither statin medication use nor IA risk was significantly associated with the other, according to our findings. The odds ratio (OR) for statin medication was 1.551 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.895–2.685, P = 0.117), and the OR for IA risk was 1.020 (95% CI: 0.984–1.059, P = 0.281). Our results were consistent across different analytical methods, including MR-Egger regression and weighted median. Conclusions These findings suggest that there is no causal relationship between statin medication use and IA risk.