But, but, but don't these people think about what they write before sending it out. What about this study that says about statins; Acute statin therapy improves survival after ischemic stroke
So does the new study account for those who were on statins continuing to take statins? With that being the reason for improvement rather than pre-stroke use of statin.
The new study here:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AANMeeting/32363
Stroke patients who were on statin therapy at the time of their
stroke appear to be significantly less likely to die in the hospital
than patients who were not on the cholesterol-lowering drugs,
researchers said here.
Among stroke patients on statins because of hypercholesterolemia, the
early mortality was 2.1% compared with an early mortality of 12.5%
among similar patients who were not treated with statins prior to
admission for stroke (P<0.001), said Mohamed Al-Khaled, MD, a fellow in neurology at the University of Lübeck, Germany.
The difference in outcome also was seen for patients who did not have
high cholesterol but were taking statins for other reasons, including
heart disease and diabetes, Al-Khaled told MedPage Today at his poster presentation during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Among such patients who were on statins, in-hospital mortality was
2.5% while those with similar conditions who were not on statin therapy
had an early mortality of 7% (P<0.001).
"Statin medication may reduce the early mortality and may have a
neuroprotective effect in patients suffering from a stroke," Al-Khaled
suggested. "Further studies are necessary to confirm this finding."
The research team investigated outcomes among 10,737 patients over a
42-month period -- beginning in 2007 -- who were diagnosed with
ischemic stroke and were entered into the German Federal State of
Schleswig-Holstein stroke registry.
During the mean hospital stay of 9 days, the researchers determined
that overall, 4.8% of the patients succumbed to their strokes.
Among the patients in the registry, 5565 were also diagnosed with
hypercholesterolemia. Al-Khaled reported that 88% of the patients with
high cholesterol were treated with statins, and 24% of the patients who
did not have high cholesterol also were treated with statin therapy.
The registry did not provide data on the type of statin used in the patients, he said.
"The early mortality was significantly lower in patients treated with
statins than those who were not treated with statins, regardless of
whether they had hypercholesterolemia," Al-Khaled said. "We were
surprised to see that statin therapy among those who did not have high
cholesterol appears to improve outcomes."
Al-Khaled reported that patients treated with statins also appeared to do better at discharge.
Among all patients on statin therapy upon admission, the discharge
Modified Rankin Score was 2.1, compared with a score of 2.7 for patients
who were not on statin therapy (P<0.001).
If the patients had high cholesterol, the discharge modified Rankin
score was 2.1 at discharge for patients on statins, and 2.9 for patients
not on statins at admission (P<0.001).
For patients who were on statins but who did not have high
cholesterol, the discharge modified Rankin score averaged 2.1 compared
with a 2.6 score for patients who were not on statins at admission (P<0.001).
"This type of phenomena has been reported before with statins," said
Ralph Sacco, MD, chairman of the department of neurology at the
University of Miami and a spokesperson for the American Heart
Association.
"Nowadays, we are treating patients with heart disease or diabetes or
other high-risk conditions with statins because in addition to their
cholesterol-lowering properties, statins are know to reduce
inflammation," Sacco told MedPage Today.
He said that the new data fits into previous findings that show when a
person with a stroke comes in already on a statin, "you have better
outcomes from those strokes, better 30-day outcomes, lower mortality.
There are a number of studies, including this one, that do seem to
confirm that patients who present with stroke while on statins may do a
little better than those who are not on the drugs."
Many researched I read said that statins are really harmful for stroke patients. FDA should do something with it. Are FDA still credible today or not? what do you think?
ReplyDeleteI have 41 posts on statins and that question really needs to be answered by the medical world. But they won't, because it would go against all the safe ways of prescribing drugs. There is very little positive benefit for not recommending statins and a whole host of negatives. Try and get a specific answer on any statin question and you'll see lots of equivocation.
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