section name header

Evidence summaries

Statins for Primary Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism

Rosuvastatin may reduce the incidence of venous thromboembolic events. Level of evidence: "C"

The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (few outcome events).

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 1 study (17 citations) with a total of 17 802 subjects. The purpose of this study (JUPITER trial) was to determine the safety and efficacy of long-term therapy with rosuvastatin 20 mg in the prevention of cardiovascular events among participants aged 50 years or more (men) or 60 years or more (women) with no history of cardiovascular disease, low level of LDL cholesterol (less than 3.4 mmol/l), and elevated level of high-sensitivity-CRP (2.0 mg/l or more). Metabolic syndrome was present in 41.7% of the participants. Venous thromboembolic events (VTE) were secondary outcome measures.

Rosuvastatin reduced the incidence of all cases of VTE (rosuvastatin 34/8901, placebo 60/8901; OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.86), provoked VTE that occurred in the presence of cancer, recent trauma, hospitalisation, or surgery (rosuvastatin 15/8901, placebo 29/8901; OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.96), and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) only (rosuvastatin 17/8901, placebo 38/8901; OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.79) but did not reduce the incidence of unprovoked VTE (rosuvastatin 19/8901, placebo 31/8901; OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.08), and pulmonary embolism (PE) (rosuvastatin 17/8901, placebo 22/8901; OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.41 to 1.46).

Rosuvastatin reduced the incidence of all VTE in men (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.84) and patients aged 50 to 69 years (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.96) but it did not reduce the incidence of all VTE in women (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.56) and patients aged 70 to 97 years (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.31 to 1.11).

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search:

    References

    • Li L, Zhang P, Tian JH et al. Statins for primary prevention of venous thromboembolism. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2014;(12):CD008203. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords