title: The use of statins in patients with heart failure: more questions than answers.
abstract: The use of statins to treat patients with heart failure (HF) is controversial due to conflicting results from large, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trials and other smaller studies. A recent comprehensive, well-conducted meta-analysis from Preiss and colleagues sought to determine whether statin therapy had an effect on major HF outcomes such as hospitalization and death. Although the study demonstrated a significant effect of statin therapy on HF hospitalizations, several limitations involving the participant data and nature of statin used in the analyzed trials raise questions about the inferences that can be drawn from the study results.
authors.affiliation: MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Westman
authors.affiliation: MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lipinski
keywords: Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors; heart failure (HF); meta-analysis