Impact of prior statin use on percutaneous coronary intervention outcomes in acute coronary syndrome

Background The use of statins prior to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has reduced cardiac events in both short and long-term follow-up. This study assessed the impact of prior statin use on in-hospital PCI outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods Retrospective analysis of a multicenter registry of 6,288 consecutive patients undergoing PCI. Of these, 35% had ACS and were evaluated according to statin use (Group 1, n = 1,203) or no use (Group 2, n = 999). Results Group 1 showed higher prevalence of dyslipidemia, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), previous coronary artery bypass graft, chronic renal failure, multivessel involvement, bifurcation lesions, and use of drug-eluting stents. Group 2 showed more primary and rescue PCIs, Killip functional class III/IV, B2/C lesions, thrombi, total occlusions, pre-procedural TIMI 0/1 flow, presence of collateral circulation, and use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and aspiration catheters. PCI success was higher in Group 1 (95.1% vs. 92.5%; p = 0.01), and the occurrence of major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiac events (MACCE) (3.7% vs. 5.7%) was more frequent in Group 2. Although the non-use of statins showed an association with MACCE in the univariate analysis, independent predictors of in-hospital MACCE were limited to AMI in Killip III/IV and prior coronary artery bypass graft. Conclusions ACS patients undergoing PCI who previously used statins had better in-hospital clinical outcomes; however, statin use was not an independent predictor of MACCE.