Background: Data have shown that preprocedural statin therapy reduces periprocedural myocardial infarction after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, whether preprocedural statins improve clinical outcomes in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) has not been established. We aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of preprocedural statin therapy in patients with stable CAD undergoing PCI.
Methods and results: We conducted an observational study of 12 980 patients, age >65 years with stable CAD, who underwent PCI from December 1, 2003, to March 31, 2008. Using propensity score-matching analysis, 3098 unique matched pairs (6196 patients) who had similar likelihood of receiving preprocedural statins were identified. Additional analyses adjusting for postprocedural statins as a time-varying variable were performed. The main outcome measure was a composite of death or recurrent acute coronary syndrome. In the propensity-matched cohort, at 90 days, the primary outcome of death and acute coronary syndrome occurred in 5.6% in the preprocedural statin group as compared with 7.4% in the no-pretreatment group (P=0.005). Improved clinical outcomes associated with preprocedural statins were still observed at 2 years (16.7% versus 19.3%, P=0.007). The effectiveness of preprocedural statins was most pronounced at 90 days after PCI (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.65 to 0.98) but was no longer significant at 1 year (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.92; 95% confidence interval, 0.79 to 1.07) after accounting for postprocedural statin therapy.
Conclusions: Preprocedural statin therapy was associated with significant reduction in the risk of death or recurrent acute coronary syndrome in stable CAD patients after PCI. These findings support the routine use of preprocedural statins for suitable candidates.