Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month: Focus on Statins and Rheumatic Disease

October 9, 2018

A look at the potential survival benefit of statins in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Reference1. Jorge AM, Lu N, Keller SF, et al. The effect of statin use on mortality in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases. J Rheumatol. 2018 Sep 1. pii: jrheum.171389. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.171389. [Epub ahead of print].

Jorge and fellow researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, demonstrated that statin initiation is associated with a reduction in mortality for patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease.¹ Thumb through the slides for the details of their study and the take-home points for physicians.

(Image: ©Lightspring/Shutterstock.com)

AAV, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitis; DM, dermatomyositis; PM, polymyositis; SARD, systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus; SSc, systemic sclerosis.

CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio.

CVD, cardiovascular disease; SARD, systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease.