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Statin use and sex-specific stroke outcomes in patients with vascular disease

Cheryl D Bushnell1, Jeffrey Griffin, L Kristin Newby

  • 1Center for Cerebrovascular Disease, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Cheryl.bushnell@duke.edu

Stroke
|April 29, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Statin use lowers stroke risk but does not affect stroke severity or mortality. Women experience more severe strokes than men, irrespective of statin use or other factors.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Statins are known to reduce stroke risk in patients with coronary heart disease.
  • However, the impact of statin therapy on stroke outcomes, particularly concerning sex differences, remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between statin use and sex-specific stroke incidence, severity, and mortality.
  • To determine if sex influences the effectiveness of statins in mitigating stroke outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Pooled data from three clinical trials (SYMPHONY and BRAVO) involving oral glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors.
  • Compared stroke outcomes between 8,191 baseline statin users and 14,752 non-users.
  • Utilized proportional hazards regression for time-to-event data and the Canadian Neurological Scale (CNS) for stroke severity assessment.

Main Results:

  • Statin users exhibited a reduced risk of stroke (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.97) after risk adjustment.
  • No significant differences were observed in stroke mortality or severity between statin users and non-users.
  • Women experienced more severe strokes than men (median CNS=9.5 vs 10.5), even after adjusting for statin use and other covariates.

Conclusions:

  • Statin use is linked to a decreased risk of stroke in patients within these trials.
  • Statin therapy did not influence stroke severity or mortality.
  • Women consistently had more severe strokes than men, a disparity not explained by statin use or baseline characteristics.
Abstract

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