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Statin use may reduce risk for cirrhosis in patients with HCV
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The use of statin therapy among patients with hepatitis C virus infection reduced their risk for developing cirrhosis, according to published findings.
“To our knowledge, this study was the first study to document dose-response relationship between the use of statins and the risk for cirrhosis development after controlling for the confounding effects of age, sex, income, urbanization, diabetes and other medications,” the researchers wrote.
Researchers in Taiwan analyzed data of 226,856 patients with HCV from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database between 1997 and 2010 to determine the rate of cirrhosis incidence. A Cox proportional hazard regression was used for evaluating any associations between statin use and cirrhosis risk.
Overall, 34,273 cases of cirrhosis developed among the cohort over the follow-up period of 2,874,031.7 person-years. The incidence rate for cirrhosis was 445.5 cases per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 423.3-465.7) for statin users and 1,311.2 cirrhosis cases per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 1,297.1-1,325.6) for non-users. The incidence rate among statin users was based on whether statins were used for more than 28 cumulative daily doses, which was deemed regular usage by the researchers.
In addition, the researchers observed a dose-response relationship between statin use and risk for cirrhosis. The adjusted hazard ratio for statin use between 28 and 83 daily doses was 0.33 (95% CI, 0.31-0.36), 0.24 (95% CI, 0.22 to 0.25) for statin use between 84 and 365 daily doses and 0.13 (95% CI, 0.12 to 0.15) for more than 365 cumulative daily doses, relative to no statin use.
The researchers concluded: “Among the patients with HCV infection, statin use was associated with a reduced risk of cirrhosis development in a dose-dependent manner. Further clinical research is required.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.