Background: Recent clinical trials using rosuvastatin, a hydrophilic statin, did not show beneficial effects on cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure. We examined the cardioprotective effects of pitavastatin, a lipophilic statin, on Japanese patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).
Methods and results: A total of 574 Japanese patients with CHF were randomly assigned to the pitavastatin group (n=288) or the control group (n=286). There was no significant difference between the 2 groups for the primary outcome, which was a composite of cardiac death and hospitalization for worsening HF (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.922, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.632-1.345, P=0.672). A strongly significant statistical interaction between the effect of pitavastatin and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was found (P=0.004). In patients with LVEF ≥30%, a significant reduction in the primary outcome (aHR: 0.525, 95% CI: 0.308-0.896, P=0.018) was observed in the pitavastatin group. Pitavastatin did not show any effects on the primary outcome (aHR: 1.582, 95% CI: 0.890-2.813, P=0.118) in the subgroup of patients with LVEF <30%.
Conclusions: Pitavastatin did not reduce cardiac death or hospitalization for worsening HF in Japanese patients with CHF. (UMIN-ID: UMINC000000428).