Statins are a recommended and typical intervention for avoiding cardiovascular events by minimizing levels of lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood. Throughout the pandemic, it has actually been discussed whether statins influence the risk of death from COVID-19. The research study, which is released in PLOS Medicine, suggests that statin treatment somewhat reduces COVID-19 mortality.
During the pandemic, it has actually been disputed whether statins influence the danger of death from COVID-19. The research study, which is released in PLOS Medicine, suggests that statin treatment slightly decreases COVID-19 mortality.
Statins are used to decrease the cholesterol level– the lipid count– in the blood and are a common preventative treatment in clients at high danger of cardiovascular events.
During the pandemic, the concern of whether statins can minimize COVID-19 mortality via their results on coagulation and the body immune system has engaged researchers and doctors.
Earlier studies have not offered an indisputable response and have often struggled with the limitation that they have actually just consisted of healthcare facility inpatients. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have actually now performed the largest population research study to date on the relationship in between statins and COVID-19 death.
Utilizing data from Swedish signs up, the scientists followed 963,876 homeowners of Stockholm over the age of 45 in between March and November 2020. The outcomes are based upon analyses of data on the individuals prescribed medication and health care and from the Cause of Death Register.
The info was analyzed with respect to such factors as identified medical conditions. The results reveal that statin treatment was connected with a slightly lower threat of dying from COVID-19, a correlation that did not vary substantially among danger groups.
” Our results recommend that statin treatment can have a moderate prophylactic effect on COVID-19 death,” says co-first author Rita Bergqvist, medical student at Karolinska Institutet.
Randomized studies will be required to establish whether there is a causal relationship, note the researchers.
” All in all, our findings support the continued usage of statins for conditions such as cardiovascular illness and high levels of blood lipids in line with current recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says co-first author Viktor Ahlqvist, doctoral student at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet.
One constraint of the study concerns the use of prescription information without the possibility of checking specific substance abuse. The scientists were also not able to control for threat aspects such as smoking and high BMI, just diagnosed health status.
Recommendation: “HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and COVID-19 death in Stockholm, Sweden: A registry-based mate study” by Rita Bergqvist, Viktor H. Ahlqvist, Michael Lundberg, Maria-Pia Hergens, Johan Sundström, Max Bell and Cecilia Magnusson, 14 October 2021, PLOS Medicine.DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pmed.1003820.
The scientists got no financing for the research study. Co-author Johan Sundström holds shares in Eli Lilly, Boehringer, Bayer, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and others; there are no other reported conflicts of interest.