Benefit of Early Statin Therapy in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Who Have Extremely Low Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

Abstract

Objectives We investigated whether statin therapy could be beneficial in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who have baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels below 70 mg/dl. Background Intensive lipid-lowering therapy with a target LDL-C value < 70 mg/dl is recommended in patients with very high cardiovascular risk. However, whether to use statin therapy in patients with baseline LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dl is controversial. Methods We analyzed 1,054 patients with AMI who had baseline LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dl and survived at discharge from the Korean Acute MI Registry between November 2005 and December 2007. They were divided into 2 groups according to the prescribing of statins at discharge (statin group n = 607; nonstatin group n = 447). The primary endpoint was the composite of 1-year major adverse cardiac events, including death, recurrent MI, target vessel revascularization, and coronary artery bypass grafting. Results Statin therapy significantly reduced the risk of the composite primary endpoint (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.34 to 0.89; p = 0.015). Statin therapy reduced the risk of cardiac death (HR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.93; p = 0.031) and coronary revascularization (HR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.85; p = 0.013). However, there were no differences in the risk of the composite of all-cause death, recurrent MI, and repeated percutaneous coronary intervention rate. Conclusions Statin therapy in patients with AMI with LDL-C levels below 70 mg/dl was associated with improved clinical outcome. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2011;58:1664-71) (C) 2011 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation