Patients taking statin are at 41% lower risk of an in-hospital death due to COVID-19. In a recent development, researchers have found out that statins and anti-hypertension medicines stabilise underlying diseases, making patients more likely to recover from COVID-19. A study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of California's San Diego School of Medicine stated that patients taking statin are at 41 per cent lower risk of an in-hospital death due to coronavirus disease.
Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs that block liver enzymes responsible for producing cholesterol. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 93. per cent of patients who use a cholesterol-lowering drug use a statin. The ACE2 receptor - target of statins - helps control blood pressure. In 2020, it was discovered that SARS-CoV-2 virus primarily uses the same receptor to enter lung cells.
"When faced with this virus at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of speculation surrounding certain medications that affect the body's ACE2 receptor, including statins, and whether they may influence Covid-19 risk," said lead study author Lori Daniels, professor and director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at UC San Diego Health. As a part of the study, the research team used data from the American Heart Association's COVID-19 Cardiovascular Registry. They then applied their original findings to 10,541 patients across the United States, who were hospitalised with the coronavirus disease. It was conducted across 104 hospitals from January to September 2020. Each patient was matched to one or more similar patients on the basis of hospital site, the month of admission, age, race, ethnicity, gender, and a list of pre-existing conditions, in order to make the two groups as comparable as possible, stated Karen Messer, study co-author and professor of biostatistics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
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"From this data, we performed more advanced analyses as we attempted to control for coexisting medical conditions, socioeconomic status and hospital factors... In doing so, we confirmed our prior findings that statins are associated with a reduced risk of death from COVID-19 among patients hospitalised for Covid-19," said Daniels.
Daniels stated patients with good medical reasons to be taking statins, such as a history of cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure, seem to benefit more from taking statins in case of Covid-19 infection. The research team discovered that the use of statins or an anti-hypertension medication was associated with a 32 per cent lower risk of death among Covid-19 inpatients with a history of cardiovascular disease or hypertension.
As per the research, statins and anti-hypertension medications stabilise the underlying diseases for which they are prescribed, increasing the chances of recovering from Covid-19.