• A recent Cochrane review examined the use of early statin therapy in patients with ACS.

• They evaluated 18 studies (14,303 patients), which compared early statin therapy (within 14 days) to placebo or usual care.

• The conclusion was that initiation of early statin therapy does not reduce death, myocardial infarction of stroke up to four months, but reduces the occurrence of unstable angina by 24% at 4 months following ACS.

• Many smaller studies previously noted benefits with early statin initiation prior to this meta-analysis.

References

Statins for acute coronary syndrome. Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews. Volume 9, 2011.