Statins Flop in Sepsis and COPD - MedPage

Statins Flop in Sepsis and COPD

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: May 18, 2014

 

SAN DIEGO -- Statins don't prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations or improve outcomes in sepsis-related respiratory failure, a series of trials showed. For patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from sepsis in the ICU, rosuvastatin (Crestor) didn't cut 60-day in-hospital mortality compared with placebo (28.5% versus 24.9%, P=0.21) or boost ventilator-free days (mean 15.1 in both groups, P=0.96).

Putting patients on the lipid-lowering drug actually contributed to hepatic and renal failure, Jonathon D. Truwit, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and colleagues found in the ARDS Clinical Trials Network study.

In the STATCOPE trial, simvastatin (Zocor) didn't prevent COPD exacerbations compared with placebo (1.36 versus 1.39 mean per person-year, P=0.54) or delay them (median 223 versus 231 days to first exacerbation, P=0.34), Gerard Criner, MD, of Temple University in Philadelphia, reported at the meeting.

Both National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored trials were reported at a late-breaking clinical trials session here at the American Thoracic Society meeting and released simultaneously online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Read the complete article here. See also NEJM article here.