Does statin discontinuation rapidly increase blood atherogenic risk in dyslipidemic adults?
Statin discontinuation leads to a rapid loss of lipid-lowering benefits within 4 days, highlighting the absence of a legacy protective effect.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Half of dyslipidemic patients sometimes discontinue statin medication. It is unclear if blood atherogenic risk increases right after statin discontinuation or if there is a lingering protective effect. We sought to determine if a legacy effect prevented blood lipid increases during the first stages of statin cessation. METHODS AND RESULTS: ; P = 0.782), returned to basal levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our data does not support a statin lingering/legacy effect in blood lipids since they dangerously increased after only 4 days of statin withdrawal in every patient, regardless of dose and years under treatment. Reloading statins restored blood lipids, evidencing a reproducible biological effect at the whole-body level.
Álvarez-Jiménez et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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