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Clinical impact of statin therapy on vasospastic angina: data from a Korea nation-wide cohort study

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Abstract

The effect of statin therapy on reducing adverse cardiovascular events in vasospastic angina (VSA) has been inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the association between statin therapy and adverse cardiovascular events in a large, prospective VSA cohort. The Variant Angina Korea registry consecutively enrolled 2960 patients suspected VSA. Among them, we included 1713 patients who were diagnosed with VSA based on coronary provocation test. We divided the patients into the statin (n = 744) and no-statin group (n = 914) according to the medication prescribed at discharge. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiac death, acute coronary syndrome, and new-onset life-threatening arrhythmia during a 3-year follow-up period. The primary outcome occurred in 32 patients (4.3%) in the statin and 28 patients (3.1%) in the no-statin group. In Kaplan–Meier analysis before and after propensity score matching, there was no significant difference in the cumulative incidence of primary outcomes between both groups. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that the focal type of VSA was independent predictor of primary outcomes, but statin therapy was not. Furthermore, the lack of benefit of statin therapy for primary outcomes was consistently observed across the statin intensity and spasm characteristics. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that statin therapy did not reduce adverse cardiovascular events in patients with VSA.

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Funding

This research received no grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Won-Woo Seo & Sung Eun Kim

  2. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, 896, Pyeongchon-dong, Dongan-gu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 431-070, South Korea

    Sang-Ho Jo

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Gil Medical Center, Gachon University, Incheon, South Korea

    Seung Hwan Han

  4. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, South Korea

    Kwan Yong Lee

  5. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Daejeon St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon, South Korea

    Sung Ho Her

  6. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Soon Chun Hyang Seoul Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

    Min-Ho Lee

  7. Department of Epidemiology and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea

    Sung Seek Cho

  8. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea

    Sang Hong Baek

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  1. Won-Woo Seo
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Correspondence to Sang-Ho Jo.

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Seo, WW., Jo, SH., Kim, S.E. et al. Clinical impact of statin therapy on vasospastic angina: data from a Korea nation-wide cohort study. Heart Vessels 35, 1051–1059 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-020-01579-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-020-01579-z

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