Abstract
BACKGROUND: The benefit of statin pretreatment before primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on myocardial reperfusion and prognosis in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated whether atorvastatin pretreatment could improve ST-segment resolution (STR) and long-term clinical outcomes in this setting. METHODS: From the China Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry, we conducted propensity score matching to compare STR and 2-year major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, all-cause death, reinfarction, and stroke) in 2426 STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI (1213 patients per group). RESULTS: Within the pretreatment group, 75, 726, 60, and 691 patients received 20 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg or 80 mg atorvastatin respectively. In the matched cohort of 2426 patients with available STR data (1213 pretreated), STR < 50 % occurred in 258 (21 %) patients in the control group versus 159 (13 %) in the pretreatment group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.53; 95 % CI: 0.41-0.70). Multivariable analysis showed that atorvastatin pretreatment was significantly associated with lower 2-year MACE rates (6.9 % vs 8.7 %; adjusted HR: 0.68; 95 % CI: 0.48-0.97), which were consistent across multiple subgroups. CONCLUSION: A single dose of atorvastatin pretreatment before primary PCI significantly improves myocardial reperfusion parameters and may be associated with long-term clinical benefits, supporting further validation in randomized trials.