Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
According to a recent study, regular use of statins, these common cholesterol-lowering drugs may have played a role in reducing the severity of COVID-19 and the risk of death in infected patients.
Did people treated for hypercholesterolemia escape the worst during the first waves of Covid-19 thanks to their treatment? This is what a new American study conducted by the University of Florida on 38,000 patients and detailed during The Anesthesiology Annual Meeting. A significant fact when you know that statins are among the best-selling drugs in the world.
Patients on statins experienced fewer complications
The study promises to be one of the most comprehensive on the subject. The researchers analyzed the electronic medical records of 38,875 American patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at 185 hospitals in the United States between January 1 and September 30, 2020. Of these patients, 30% regularly used statins to treat the hypercholesterolemia.
Results of this retrospective study? Statin users had a 37% lower risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to those who did not use statins. Additionally, regular statin users were significantly less likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) or to develop blood clots. They also had shorter hospital stays and spent less time on a ventilator according to the data analyzed.
Two factors to explain this positive effect
For Dr. Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, “this is not the first time this effect has been seen: regular use of statins is now associated with a reduced risk of death and better outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. However, statins are not magic drugs. It is not a question of consuming it for protection.”
This effect can be explained by two causes:
- A direct cause related to the reduction of inflammation induced by statins. Indeed, as the study announces, while COVID-19 itself causes inflammation, and in some cases an extreme reaction causing breathing difficulties and damage to the lungs, kidneys, heart, etc. statin anti-inflammatories “cool down the process” so the disease is not as severe;
- For Dr. Kierzek, another, more indirect cause also comes into play: “People on statins are people who are also better monitored on a daily basis, they receive prescriptions for cardiovascular diseases, are frequently checked, better taken care of… This context certainly plays in their favour.”
For American researchers, this new data above all indicates a new breath in the fight against covid, as in other pathologies. “Our results suggest that statins may be a cost-effective additional solution against COVID-19 disease severity and should be investigated further.” Before concluding : “This research perfectly illustrates the importance of evaluating drugs that could be repurposed to help patients in ways other than their originally intended use.”.