title: Statins therapy can reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with acute coronary syndrome: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is a controversy whether statins therapy could be beneficial for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in acute coronary syndrome (ACS). To clarify this problem, we performed a meta-analysis with the currently published literatures.
  
  
  METHODS
  The electronic databases were searched to obtain relevant trials which met the inclusion criteria through October 2011. Two authors independently read the trials and extracted the related information from the included studies. Either fixed-effects models or random-effects models were assumed to calculate the overall combined risk estimates according to I(2 )statistic. Sensitivity analysis was conducted by omitting one study in each turn, and publication bias was evaluated using Begg's and Egger's test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six studies were eligible to inclusion criteria, of the six studies, 161305 patients were included in this meta-analysis, 77920 (48.31%) patients had taken the statins therapy, 83385 (51.69%) patients had taken non-statins therapy. Four studies had investigated the effect of statins therapy on occurrence of new-onset AF in ACS patients, another two had described the association between statins therapy and occurrence of AF in ACS patients with AF in baseline. The occurrence of AF was reduced 35% in statins therapy group compared to that in non-statins group (95% confident interval: 0.55-0.77, P<0.0001), and the effect of statins therapy seemed more beneficial for new-onset AF (RR=0.59, 95%CI: 0.48-0.73, p=0.096) than secondary prevention of AF (RR=0.70, 95%CI: 0.43-1.14, p=0.085). There was no publication bias according to the Begg's and Egger's test (Begg, p=0.71; Egger, p=0.73).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Statins therapy could reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with ACS.
authors: Department of Cardiology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors: Xue
authors: X
authors: Zhou
authors: Jian-lin
authors: JL
authors: Du
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Yuan
authors: Yun-qing
authors: YQ
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D054058:Acute Coronary Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D039781:PubMed; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors
keywords: acute coronary syndrome.; atrial fibrillation; statins