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  • Review Article
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Statin treatment for patients with heart failure

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 7, pages 249–255 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Statins may be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of heart failure, as indicated by large observational studies, small prospective studies, and post hoc analyses of cardiovascular databases. Two large, prospective, controlled trials have, however, shown that rosuvastatin has neutral effects on the survival of patients with chronic heart failure. The benefits of statin treatment seem to mostly result from their ability to halt disease progression in heart failure, particularly in patients with coronary artery disease. Based on these results, statin treatment might only be useful for the prevention of heart failure, and possibly in patients with new-onset heart failure. This Review highlights data from observational data analyses as well as from the large prospective trials investigating the safety and efficacy of statins in patients with heart failure. The results from these studies and their implications for the timing of initiating statin therapy in this patient population are also discussed.

Key Points

  • Statin therapy has been implicated in the prevention of adverse cardiovascular events, including new-onset heart failure

  • Several observational and post hoc analyses from large clinical trials have implied that statin therapy may provide benefit to patients with heart failure

  • Two large randomized, controlled trials demonstrated that rosuvastatin had neutral effects on long-term outcomes in patients with chronic systolic heart failure when added to standard neurohormonal antagonists

  • The discrepancy between observational data and randomized trials can be explained by study design, medications used, or patient selection criteria

  • Early enthusiasm for statins as a therapeutic strategy has been dampened following these trials

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Figure 1: The pleiotropic effects of statins.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Heart and Vascular Institute, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, 44195, OH, USA

    W. H. Wilson Tang

  2. Cardiovascular Division, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 508, 420 Delaware Street, Minneapolis, 55455, MN, USA

    Gary S. Francis

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Correspondence to W. H. Wilson Tang.

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Competing interests

W. H. Tang has worked as a consultant for Merck and received grant/research support from Abbott Laboratories. G. S. Francis has worked as a consultant for Merck.

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Tang, W., Francis, G. Statin treatment for patients with heart failure. Nat Rev Cardiol 7, 249–255 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2010.29

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