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(Stroke. 2006;37:1153.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

Statins and Stroke: Current Clinical Practice

Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital de la Merced, Osuna, Seville, Spain

María del Carmen Fernandez Moreno, MD

Department of Neurology, Hospital de Valme, Seville, Spain

José Manuel López-Chozas, MD

Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Virgen del Rocio, Seville, Spain

María Dolores Jimérnez, MD

Department of Neurology, Hospital Virgen del Rocio, Seville, Spain

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

The role of statins on secondary prevention of stroke is not still defined. Though statins have demonstrated to reduce the relative risk of ischemic stroke by between 18% and 51% in patients with previous coronary heart disease (CHD) or high vascular disease risk, this is not clear for all stroke patients.¹ An ongoing clinical trial, SPARCL, may clarify this issue.²

In order to examine the use of statins for individuals with recent stroke in our current clinical practice, we reviewed the medical records of patients with acute stroke admitted to the Department of Neurology of the Hospital de Valme, Seville, Spain, and the Department of Internal Medicine of the Hospital de la Merced, Osuna, Seville, Spain, for a 3-year period. We included 1087 patients. Nine hundred and ninety-three cases (91.4%) were ischemic infarcts and 94 (8.6%) hemorrhages. From these ischemic cases, 182 patients (18.3%) were taking statins when discharged. The main statins used were atorvastatin (34.6%), pravastatin (34.1%), simvastatin (30.2%), and lovastatin (1%). High cholesterol level was presented in 348 patients (35%); only 165 of these patients (47.4%) received statins at discharge. CHD was present in 173 patients (17.4%), but only 44 of these patients (25.4%) were taking statins at discharge. Previous stroke-transient ischemic attack and clinical limb-ischemia was present in 274 (27.5%) and 37 (3.7%) patients respectively, and received treatment in 21.5% and 24.3%. Age was associated with a reduced odd of receiving statins (P<0.001).

Our results show major deficiencies in the delivery of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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