Significantly reduced ascending aortic size in patients treated with statins versus untreated
FRIDAY, Nov. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Statin treatment in patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) stenosis is associated with significantly lower ascending aortic size, according to a study published in the Nov. 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
Sachin S. Goel, M.D., from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and colleagues investigated the role of statins in slowing ascending aortic dilation in patients with BAV. Data on statin use were collected from 147 patients who underwent diagnostic coronary angiography before aortic valve, with or without ascending aorta replacement surgery for bicuspid aortic stenosis (AS) between 2004 and 2007. Of these patients, 76 were taking statins and 71 were not. Ascending aorta size, measured by preoperative transesophageal echocardiogram, was compared between patients taking and not taking statins.
The investigators found that the statin group had significantly lower levels of total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. The statin subgroup of pure-severe AS participants showed a significantly lower ascending aorta size, which was not observed in the mixed-severe AS and severe aortic regurgitation group. Significantly fewer patients taking a statin in the pure-severe AS group had an ascending aorta size of 4 cm or more. Statin use was the only independent predictor of aortic size in multivariate analysis, and correlated with a reduction of 0.33 cm in aortic size.
"Patients with statin-treated BAV stenosis have a smaller ascending aortic size than patients with BAV untreated with statins," the authors write.
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