Cardiology

Atrial fibrillation

Stroke (engine)

Internal medicine

Engineering

Ischemic stroke

Medicine

Mechanical engineering

Ischemia

Statin

Stroke risk

Stroke

Outpatient statin use reduces the risk of recurrent ischemic stroke among patients with stroke of atherothrombotic cause. It is not known whether statins have similar effects in ischemic stroke caused by atrial fibrillation (AFib).We studied outpatient statin adherence, measured by percentage of days covered, and the risk of recurrent ischemic stroke in patients with or without AFib in a 21-hospital integrated healthcare delivery system.Among 6116 patients with ischemic stroke discharged on a statin over a 5-year period, 1446 (23.6%) had a diagnosis of AFib at discharge. The mean statin adherence rate (percentage of days covered) was 85, and higher levels of percentage of days covered correlated with greater degrees of low-density lipoprotein suppression. In multivariable survival models of recurrent ischemic stroke over 3 years, after controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, medical comorbidities, and hospital center, higher statin adherence predicted reduced stroke risk both in patients without AFib (hazar...

Statin Adherence Is Associated With Reduced Recurrent Stroke Risk in Patients With or Without Atrial Fibrillation