The 2822 eligible patients registered in the Fukuoka Stroke Registry with first-ever acute ischemic stroke from June 2007 to February 2011 were classified into statin users (n聽=聽993) and non-users (n聽=聽1829) at discharge, and followed up until March 2012. We assessed the cumulative risks of CVE and all-cause mortality by the Kaplan-Meier method, and calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidential intervals (CIs) using the Cox proportional hazards model.
During the follow-up time (median, 2.0 years), 305 patients had CVEs and 345 died. The cumulative risks of CVE and death after 4 years were significantly lower in statin users than in non-users (13.8% versus 19.5%, P聽=聽0.005 for CVE; 11.8% versus 21.7%, P聽<聽0.001 for death). After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, statin treatment significantly reduced the risks of CVE (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.92; P聽=聽0.011) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.89; P聽=聽0.006).
Our findings suggest that low-dose statin may reduce the risks of CVE and death in Japanese patients with acute ischemic stroke.