Statin therapy after first stroke reduces 10-year stroke recurrence and improves survival.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether statin therapy after hospital discharge affects ischemic stroke recurrence and long-term mortality in patients admitted for a first-ever occurrence of ischemic stroke.


METHODS
This was a retrospective observational study involving linked hospitalization and death records. The cohort comprised a series of 794 consecutive, first-ever acute ischemic stroke patients from the Athenian Stroke Registry, admitted to the acute stroke unit and the general medicine and neurology ward of our institutions since January 1997 for whom there was available information covering a 10-year follow-up period. Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify risk factors for stroke recurrence and death.


RESULTS
The recurrence rate was 16.3% among stroke patients not receiving a statin after hospital discharge compared with 7.5% among those who received statin therapy (p = 0.002). Cox regression analyses revealed only statin therapy postdischarge to be a significant independent predictor of stroke recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39 to 0.97, p < 0.01). Similarly, patients receiving a statin had a significantly lower mortality during the 10-year period after the acute cerebrovascular event (adjusted HR, 0.43; 95% CI 0.29 to 0.61, p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Prescribing statin therapy upon hospital discharge to patients with first-ever acute stroke lowers the risk of 10-year stroke recurrence and improves survival.
Milionis
H J
HJ
University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
Giannopoulos
S
S
Kosmidou
M
M
Panoulas
V
V
Manios
E
E
Kyritsis
A P
AP
Elisaf
M S
MS
Vemmos
K
K
D000368:Aged; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D020521:Stroke / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors