Early Start on Statin Drug Boosts Survival for Heart Transplant Patients

Heart transplant patients who begin taking a cholesterol-lowering statin drug within days following their surgery have significantly better eight-year survival rates, according to German researchers.

The researchers at Munich-Bogenhausen hospital, reporting in the journal Circulation, said patients started on simvastatin four days after their heart transplant had an 88.6 percent survival rate compared to 59.5 percent for patients who did not start statin treatment until four years after their surgery.

The authors also reported that early treatment with simvastatin dramatically reduced development of coronary artery thickening called transplant vasculopathy, a major long term complication of heart transplantation.

After 8 years, only 24.4 percent of patients who were started early on simvastatin had developed transplant vasculopathy compared to 54.7 percent in the later group.

There was no difference in organ function between the two groups, the researchers added.

"Simvastatin therapy initiated early after heart transplantation leads to significantly better eight-year survival rates and a significantly lower incidence of transplant vasculopathy without impairment of organ function or severe adverse effects," the researchers concluded.

Other sources: Circulation