Effect of statins on total cholesterol concentrations, cardiovascular morbidity, and all-cause mortality in chronic...

The benefit of statin use on total cholesterol (TC) concentration has not been studied previously in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Our study aimed to evaluate statin-associated TC-concentration reduction and subsequent risk for cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in COPD.

We performed a population-based cohort study using a record-linkage database in Tayside, Scotland. A total of 1017 COPD patients who had at least 2 separate TC measurements between 1993 and 2007 were studied. They were categorized into statin-exposed and statin-unexposed groups according to their statin use status during follow-up. Main outcomes were TC-concentration change from baseline, CV events, and all-cause mortality during follow-up. Multivariate Cox regression models with a time-dependent variable for statins were used to assess risk for outcomes.

Statin-associated TC concentrations decreased by 0.86 mmol/L (16%) in patients treated for primary prevention (PP) (n = 1274) and 0.52 mmol/L (11%) in patients treated for secondary prevention (SP) (n = 443), from 5.30 mmol/L and 4.68 mmol/L at baseline, respectively. TC concentrations also declined by 2% in patients free from established CV disease and by 5% in patients with established CV disease in the statin-unexposed groups. A risk reduction of recurrent CV events with statins was observed (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.35; 95% CI, 0.15-0.87), but not for PP (adjusted HR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.37-1.89). Statins reduced CV mortality (adjusted HR = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13-0.77) in SP but not PP. There were statistically significant reductions in all-cause mortality in both PP (adjusted HR = 0.61; 95% CI, 0.43-0.85) and SP (adjusted HR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35-0.97).

In patients with COPD, statins were protective from CV events and CV mortality in SP but not PP, and statins improved all-cause mortality in both PP and SP.