Impact of Statin Treatment Intensity after Endovascular Revascularization on Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease

PURPOSE: Only a few Asian studies have discussed the impact of statin intensity on clinical outcomes in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). We aimed to investigate the clinical impact of statin intensity in patients with PAD after endovascular revascularization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From April 2009 to June 2019, 376 patients with lower extremity PAD treated with endovascular revascularization were enrolled. They were classified into three groups according to statin intensity: no-statin, low-to-moderate intensity (LMI), and high-intensity (HI). The primary outcomes were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and major adverse limb events (MALE). RESULTS: During the 40-month follow-up, MACE occurred less frequently in the HI and LMI groups than the no-statin group (11.4% vs. 16.0% vs. 39%, p<0.001). In adjusted Cox models, the HI group had the fewest MACE [hazard ratio (HR): 0.447; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.244–0.834; p=0.018] and MALE (HR: 0.360; 95% CI: 0.129–1.006; p=0.051) events, while the LMI group had fewer MACE (HR: 0.571; 95% CI: 0.326–1.0; p=0.050) events than the no-statin group. HI statin therapy was associated with better outcomes in terms of MALE (HR: 0.432; 95% CI: 0.223–0.837; p=0.003) than LMI statin therapy after inverse probability treatment weighting analysis. CONCLUSION: HI and LMI statin use is associated with a significant reduction in MACE events than no-statin use. HI statin use was associated with better MALE outcomes than no-statin or LMI statin use.