Treatment with statins and ischemic stroke severity: does the dose matter?

To examine the effects of pretreatment with statins at high doses (40 mg of rosuvastatin or 80 mg of any other statin) and low to moderate doses (<40 mg of rosuvastatin or <80 mg of any other statin) on ischemic stroke (IS) severity in clinical practice.

Observational study of IS admissions to our stroke unit over a 3-year period (2008-2010). Mild stroke severity was defined as NIH Stroke Scale score ≤5 on admission. Multivariable regression models and matched propensity score analyses were used to quantify the association of statin pretreatment at high and low to moderate doses with mild stroke severity.

Of the 969 IS patients, 23% were taking low to moderate doses and 4.1% were taking high doses of statins prior to the stroke. Statins were associated with lower NIHSS scores on admission (median [interquartile range] 4 [9] for nonstatin patients, 4 [9] for low to moderate doses of statins, and 2 [4] for high doses of statins; p = 0.010). After multivariable adjustment, pretreatment with statins was associated with a higher probability of mild stroke severity in the unmatched analysis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.637, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.156-2.319 for the low to moderate doses and OR = 3.297, 95% CI 1.480-7.345 for the high doses of statins) as well as in the propensity score matched analysis (OR = 2.023, 95% CI 1.248-3.281 for the low to moderate doses and OR = 3.502, 95% CI 1.477-8.300 for the high doses of statins).

Pretreatment with statins is associated with lower stroke severity, at high as well as at low to moderate doses.