Statin treatment in dialysis patients after acute myocardial infarction improves overall mortality.

While statins are widely accepted as a keystone for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in the general population, statin treatment in chronic renal failure is still debated. Statins have shown no benefit on cardiovascular outcomes in 4D, AURORA, and SHARP trials conducted in patients on dialysis. However, no study has yet compared statin treatment after acute myocardial infarction in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Statin treatment significantly decreases overall mortality in ESRD patients with acute myocardial infarction compared to the non-statin group. This is more prominent in the cardiac shock patient subgroup. The results are compatible with other studies, supporting a measurable benefit from statins in ESRD patients. There is no clear consensus on statin treatment in dialysis patients. The study by Chung et al. published in this issue of Atherosclerosis was conducted in a large patients' pool, with a long follow-up period [1]. Authors have reported an important result supporting statin treatment in dialysis patients after acute myocardial infarction.