Objective: To explore the effect of early statin therapy (atorvastatin and simvastatin) on mortality in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at a single center. A total of 315 patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, admitted into our hospital from January 2002 to December 2008, were enrolled. The association of statin therapy at the initial hospitalization with all-cause mortality was evaluated. The median follow-up period was 45.1 months.
Results: By the single-factor analysis, we found that the follow-up mortality was 17.2% in statin group and it was significantly lower than 37.4% of non-statin users (P = 0.003); in patients with worsening cardiac function NYHA III - IV, the mortality of statin group was 17.2% while a much higher mortality of 47.4% was found in non-statin users (P = 0.003); in patients with NYHA I - II, no significant difference was found in mortality between two groups. By the multi-factor analysis adjusting for age, gender, history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, current cigarette smoking, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, left ventricular ejection fraction, NYHA functional class, use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, β blocker, aldosterone, other diuretics, digoxin and calcium channel blocker, we found the relative risk (RR) of death in statin use was 0.352 (95%CI 0.135 - 0.920, P = 0.033). In patients with NYHA III - IV, the relative death risk of statin therapy was 0.250 (95%CI 0.081 - 0.778, P = 0.017).
Conclusions: Early treatment of atorvastatin or simvastatin is closely correlated with the reduction of mortality in non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy patients, especially in those with severe heart failure. And the correlation is independent of the lipid-lowering effects of statins, ACEI and β-blocker therapy.