At the 2023 annual congress of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA 2023), new real-world data was presented by researchers from Hong Kong, demonstrating that the risk of strokes was lower in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients who had been using statins within a year of their diagnosis. While the benefit of statins in AF patients has remained largely unclear for some time, these encouraging findings could point to a potential new treatment option for stroke prevention in AF patients, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Amy Murray, Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData comments: “AF is the most common cardiac sustained arrhythmia, characterized by rapid and disorganized electrical activity of the atria, which results in accelerated and irregular ventricular activity, loss of atrial mechanical function, and an increased risk of atrial clot formation. As a result, patients with the condition have a five times greater risk of stroke, coronary events, and mortality. Although anticoagulant medication is recommended to prevent stroke in those with AF, it does not completely eliminate the risk, leaving room for the entry of more effective treatments for stroke prevention in these patients.”

Until now, the benefit of statins for stroke prevention in AF patients had been unclear. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong sought to investigate this further by evaluating the association between statin use and the incidence of stroke and transient ischemic attack in patients with AF.

Murray continues: “The final results, which were presented at the 2023 EHRA congress, demonstrated that statin users had a significantly lower risk of all primary outcomes compared to non-users, regardless of whether or not patients used anticoagulant medication and the type of anticoagulant.”

Patients using statins for six years or longer had a 43% lower risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism, a 44% reduced likelihood of hemorrhagic stroke, and a 42% reduced risk of transient ischemic attack, compared to those taking the medication for less than two years.

Murray concludes: “The data from this study provides strong support for the use of statins to prevent stroke and transient ischaemic attack in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation. As a result, these findings could have important clinical implications for stroke prevention in the future, especially given that ischemic strokes are often fatal or disabling and have a high risk of recurrence in AF patients. However, further large-scale randomized control trials will be necessary to establish the long-term safety of statins in AF patients, particularly in those with a higher risk of bleeding.”