Study was stopped for futility after 615 participants completed study
TUESDAY, Feb. 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Among adults undergoing cardiac surgery, perioperative atorvastatin does not reduce the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI), according to a study published online Feb. 23 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was published to coincide with the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s 45th Critical Care Congress, held from Feb 20 to 24 in Orlando, Fla.
Frederic T. Billings IV, M.D., from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues randomized 199 patients, naive to statin treatment, to receive perioperative atorvastatin (102 patients) or matching placebo (97 patients). In addition, 416 patients already taking a statin prior to study enrollment were randomized to perioperative atorvastatin (206 patients) or matching placebo (210).
The trial was stopped for futility after 615 patients completed the study. The researchers found that AKI occurred in 20.8 percent of the atorvastatin group and 19.5 percent in the placebo group among all 615 participants (relative risk [RR], 1.06; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.78 to 1.46). AKI occurred in 21.6 and 13.4 percent of patients in the atorvastatin and placebo groups, respectively, among patients naive to statin treatment (RR, 1.61; 95 percent CI, 0.86 to 3.01). Among patients already taking a statin, AKI occurred in 20.4 and 22.4 percent of the atorvastatin and placebo groups, respectively (RR, 0.91; 95 percent CI, 0.63 to 1.32).
“These results do not support the initiation of statin therapy to prevent AKI following cardiac surgery,” the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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