• Casper N Bang, Gunnar H Gislason, Anders M Greve, Christian Torp-Pedersen, Lars Køber, and Kristian Wachtell.
• Department of Cardiology, The Heart Center, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2014 Mar 1; 21 (3): 330-8.

AimTo evaluate the effect of statins on reducing new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in a large real-world post-myocardial infarction (MI) population. Subsequently, to test if different statin doses, various types and compliance affected the incidence of new-onset AF post MI.MethodsAll patients with first-time acute MI between 1997 and 2009 in Denmark and claimed prescriptions of statins after discharge were identified from the Danish nationwide administrative registers. Patients with a history of AF were excluded. Risk of new-onset AF according to statin use were analysed by multivariable time-dependent Cox regressions models adjusted for age, gender, year, concomitant medication, and comorbidity, and additionally in a propensity score-matched analysis.ResultsA total of 89,703 patients with average follow up of 5.0 ± 3.5 years were included in this study. In the 56,044 patients receiving statins, 5698 (10%) had new-onset AF vs. 5010 (15%) in the 33,659 patients serving as controls. The adjusted Cox regression analysis showed significant reduction in new-onset AF (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.80-0.87, p < 0.001) in statin users. Adjustment for propensity score yielded nearly identical results (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.78-0.85, p < 0.001). Furthermore, patients compliant to statin treatment had significant reduction in new-onset AF (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.80-0.87, p < 0.001). Finally, simvastatin and atorvastatin were significantly more effective than pravastatin (both p < 0.01) in reducing new-onset AF.ConclusionsStatin therapy was significantly associated with less new-onset AF in a nationwide cohort of post-MI patients. Furthermore, statins showed a type-dependent effect in preventing new-onset AF. These results support the beneficial effect of statin therapy beyond lipid lowering in patients with MI and underline the importance of statin adherence and choice of statin type.

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