A Statin a Day to Keep the Doctor Away? Comparing Aspirin and Statins for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. (September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dietrich, Eric; Davis, Kyle
• Is Part Of: Annals of pharmacotherapy. Volume 48:Number 9(2014:Sep.)
• Page Start: 1238
• Page End: 1241
• Publication Date: 2014-09
• Subjects: statins -- aspirin -- cardiovascular disease -- primary prevention -- rhabdomyolysis -- bleeding; Chemotherapy -- Periodicals; Pharmacology -- Periodicals; 615.5805
• DOI: 10.1177/1060028014540609
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1060-0280

Abstract

For the primary prevention of cardiovascular (CV) disease, aspirin reduces the risk for major vascular events by approximately 15% to 20% with an absolute reduction of approximately 0.1%. Major bleeding occurs at an excess of approximately 2 cases per 1000 patient-years with aspirin therapy. For primary prevention, statin therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of CV events by approximately 30% to 40% with an absolute reduction of 1% to 2%. Rhabdomyolysis is rare, with an incidence of 3.4 cases per 100 000 patient-years. Compared with aspirin, statins have a more favorable risk-to-benefit profile for primary prevention.