Statin use was associated with reduced mortality in both ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy and in patients with implantable defibrillators: mortality data and mechanistic insights from the Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT).
BACKGROUND
Recent observations suggest statin treatment may be associated with lower mortality in heart failure (HF). The SCD-HeFT was a study of 2521 functional class II and III HF patients with left ventricular ejection fractions < or = 35% and ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy followed up for a median of 45.5 months. The study length, size, and degree of background HF, including the use of implantable defibrillator therapy, provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of statin use in HF with mechanistic insights from subgroup analyses.


RESULTS
Statin use was reported in 965 (38%) of 2521 patients at baseline and 1187 (47%) at last follow-up. The relationships between statin use, randomization arm, disease category, and functional class and all cause mortality were assessed. Statin use was studied as a time-dependent covariate in a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model, adjusted for imbalances between statin and no-statin groups. Mortality risk was significantly lower in those taking a statin (HR [95% CI], 0.70 [0.58-0.83]). Mortality risk was lower with statin use in all prespecified subgroups: ischemic cardiomyopathy (0.69 [0.56-0.86]), nonischemic cardiomyopathy (0.67 [0.47-0.96]), implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) (0.66 [0.46-0.95], non-ICD (0.71 [0.57-0.87]), New York Heart Association II (0.62 [0.48-0.79]), and New York Heart Association III (0.79 [0.61-1.03]).


CONCLUSIONS
Statin use is associated with reduced all-cause mortality in HF patients. Statins appear to benefit patients with nonischemic and ischemic cardiomyopathy similarly. Statin benefits are similar in ICD and non-ICD patients.
Dickinson
Michael G
MG
Thoracic Cardiovascular Institute Foundation, Lansing, MI, USA. dickin45@msu.edu
Ip
John H
JH
Olshansky
Brian
B
Hellkamp
Anne S
AS
Anderson
Jill
J
Poole
Jeanne E
JE
Mark
Daniel B
DB
Lee
Kerry L
KL
Bardy
Gust H
GH
D000368:Aged; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*
D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors