The role of maintaining lower LDL-C level during statin treatment for advanced CKD patients

Background and aims

Different from other high cardiovascular (CV) risks populations, the evidence supporting the CV protective effect of LDL-C reduction with statins in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is comparatively scarce. This study is aimed to investigate the role of maintaining lower LDL-C level in advanced CKD patients.

Methods

By using Chang Gung Research Database, on the basis of Taiwan's largest healthcare group, a total of 5367 adult patients newly-diagnosed with stage 4 CKD and receiving statin were extracted and further categorized into three groups based on their LDL-C levels: <70 mg/dL, 70–100 mg/dL, and ≥100 mg/dL. The main outcome is major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke. The inverse probability of treatment weighting was performed to achieve balance of baseline characteristics.

Results

At 5-year follow-up, the LDL-C < 70 mg/dL group exhibited significantly lower risks of MACCEs (14.3 % vs. 18.7 %, hazard ratio [HR]: 0.77, 95 % CI: 0.69–0.86), cardiovascular death (7.1 % vs. 9.7 %, subdistribution HR [SHR]: 0.75, 95 % CI: 0.65–0.88), ischemic stroke (4.1 % vs. 5.4 %, [SHR]: 0.65, 95 % CI: 0.54–0.79), and new-onset end-stage renal disease requiring chronic dialysis (25.6 % vs. 29.4 %, SHR: 0.87, 95 % CI: 0.80–0.91) compared to LDL-C > 100 mg/dL group. In contrast, the group with LDL-C levels between 70 and 100 did not significantly differ from the group with LDL-C > 100 mg/dL in study outcomes.

Conclusions

Maintaining LDL-C lower than 70 mg/dL may be beneficial for cardiovascular protection in advanced CKD patients and a lower LDL-C treatment target may be required as CKD progression.