Statin drugs are used to lower cholesterol levels and prevent strokes and heart attacks long-term, but the new study suggests the drugs might join aspirin as something to give to patients immediately when they suffer a heart attack.
The head of the study, cardiologist Dr. Gregg Fonarow says, "We've known that long-term statin therapy is beneficial, but this study provides the strongest clinical evidence to date supporting the early cardioprotective effects of statins immediately following a heart attack."
The study is based on the records of more than 170,000 heart attack patients.
Those given statin drugs before hospitalization and within 24 hours after a heart attack had a 54-percent lower risk of dying in the hospital compared to patients not on statin therapy.
Patients who had not been prescribed statins in the past but were given one within 24 hours of hospitalization were 58-percent less likely to die.
Fonarow says, "We also found that statins provided additional protection from other heart attack complications as well." Those complication include cardiac arrest, cardiac shock, cardiac rupture, and ventricular fibrillation.
The study was funded by Genentech Inc., and is published in the September issue of the American Journal of Cardiology
