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Statins and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism: pooled analysis of published observational cohort studies.

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journal contribution
posted on 2018-09-27, 08:22 authored by Setor K. Kunutsor, Samuel Seidu, Kamlesh Khunti
Aims: There have been suggestions that statins may have a potential role in secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) [which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE)], but the evidence is inconsistent. We aimed to evaluate the association between statin use and risk of recurrent VTE. Methods and results: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational cohort studies. All relevant studies which reported associations between statin use and recurrent VTE outcomes were identified from MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and manual search of bibliographies from inception to January 2017. Study specific relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals were aggregated using random effects models. Eight eligible studies comprising of 103 576 participants and 13 168 recurrent VTE outcomes were included in the pooled analysis. In pooled analysis of 7 studies, the RR for recurrent VTE was 0.73 (0.68-0.79) when comparing statin use with no use. There was no evidence of heterogeneity between contributing studies (I2=0%, 0-71%; P = 0.93). The RRs for recurrent PE (three studies) and DVT (two studies) comparing statin use with no statin use were 0.75 (95% CI: 0.58-0.96) and 0.66 (95% CI: 0.60-0.71) respectively. Conclusion: Available evidence from observational cohort studies suggests a beneficial effect of statin use on VTE recurrence. Well-designed intervention studies are needed to corroborate these findings.

Funding

S.S., and K.K. acknowledge support from the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care—East Midlands (NIHR CLAHRC—EM), the Leicester Clinical Trials Unit and the NIHR Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit, which is a partnership between University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Loughborough University and the University of Leicester.

History

Citation

European Heart Journal, 2017, 38 (20), pp. 1608-1612

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES/School of Medicine/Diabetes Research Centre

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

European Heart Journal

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP) for European Society of Cardiology

issn

0195-668X

eissn

1522-9645

Acceptance date

2017-02-16

Copyright date

2017

Available date

2018-09-27

Publisher version

https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/38/20/1608/3078056

Notes

Supplementary material is available at European Heart Journal online.

Language

en