Statins and the risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism

Abstract

Aims To evaluate the association between current statin use and the risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE). Methods A population-based retrospective follow-up with a nested case-control analysis using the General Practice Research Database. Results There were 72 cases of idiopathic VTE. Using normolipidaemic nonuse as the reference group, the adjusted relative risks for idiopathic VTE for current/recent statin use, past statin use, past other lipid-lowering drug use, and hyperlipidaemic nonuse were 0.8 (0.3, 2.7), 2.4 (0.6, 10.0), 1.8 (0.4, 7.4), and 0.9 (0.4, 2.0) in the follow-up analysis, and were 1.1 (0.3, 4.3), 3.7 (0.6, 24.1), 2.0 (0.3, 11.6), and 0.4 (0.2, 1.2) in the case-control analysis. Conclusions Current statin use was not associated with a reduced risk of idiopathic VTE.