Benefit of early statin initiation within 48 hours after admission in statin-naïve patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

Background and Objectives: Although current guidelines recommend early initiation of statin in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), there is no consensus for optimal timing of statin initiation. Methods: A total of 3,921 statin-naïve patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention were analyzed, and divided into 3 groups according to statin initiation time: group 1 (statin initiation 24 hours after admission), group 2 (24–48 hours) and group 3 (≥48 hours). We also made 3 stratified models to reduce bias: model 1 (24 hours vs. ≥24 hours), model 2 (48 hours vs. ≥48 hours) and model 3 (24 hours vs. 24–48 hours). The endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACE; composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction and target-vessel revascularization) during median 3.8 years. Results: During follow-up, incidence of MACE was lower in early statin group in both model 1 (14.3% vs. 18.4%, hazard ratio [HR], 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66–0.91; p=0.002) and model 2 (14.6% vs. 19.7%, HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67–0.97; p=0.022). After propensity-score matching, results remained unaltered. Statin initiation 24 hours reduced MACE compared to statin initiation ≥24 hours in model 1. Statin initiation 48 hours also reduced MACE compared to statin initiation later in model 2. However, there was no difference in incidence of MACE between statin initiation 24 hours and 24–48 hours) in model 3. Conclusions: Early statin therapy within 48 hours after admission in statin-naïve patients with AMI reduced long-term clinical outcomes compared with statin initiation later.