Background: Stenting-related myocardial injury has been recognized as a frequent and prognostically important event, the extent of which depends on microcirculatory impairment in association with platelet aggregation, inflammation, and increased oxidative stress. Recent studies underscored the non-lipid-lowering effects of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) with antithrombotic, antiinflammatory, and antioxidative aspects. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that preprocedural statin therapy is associated with a reduction in the extent of stenting-related myocardial injury.
Methods and results: We stratified 296 consecutive patients who were undergoing stenting of a de novo stenosis according to the preprocedural status of statin therapy (229 statin-treated and 67 control patients). Incidence of periprocedural myocardial injury was assessed by analysis of creatine kinase (CK; upper limit of normal [ULN] 70 IU/L for women, 80 IU/L for men) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT; bedside test; threshold 0.1 ng/mL) before and 6, 12, and 24 hours after the intervention. Relative to control patients, the incidence of CK elevation >3x ULN was more than 90% lower in statin-treated patients (0.4% versus 6.0%, P=0.01). Statin therapy was the only factor independently associated with a lower risk of CK elevation >3x ULN (OR: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.75; P=0.03). The overall incidences of CK and cardiac troponin T elevation were slightly lower in statin-treated than in control patients (14.4% versus 20.9%, P=0.3, and 17.9% versus 22.4%, P=0.5, respectively).
Conclusions: Preprocedural statin therapy is associated with a reduction in the incidence of larger-sized, stenting-related myocardial infarctions. Prospective, randomized trials are warranted to further assess this cardioprotective effect of statins in coronary intervention.