Scientists at Columbia University in the United States have discovered that patients with COVID-19 who took statins to lower their cholesterol levels, the risk of death decreased by about half. A drug that saves from death due to SARS-CoV-2, reported in an article published in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers analyzed data on 2,626 coronavirus patients who were hospitalized during the first 18 weeks of the pandemic. At the same time, 648 people regularly took statins before the development of COVID-19.
Among those receiving statins, 96 people (14.8 percent) died in hospital within 30 days of hospitalization, compared with 172 patients (26.5 percent) who did not take statins. The researchers took into account demographic differences, comorbidities, and other medications that could influence the outcome of the disease. They estimated that statins reduced in-hospital mortality during the first 30 days of hospitalization by 50 percent. The drugs also reduced C-reactive protein, which is a marker of inflammation.
However, statins did not reduce the risk of requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (18.6 percent for those taking statins versus 21.9 percent), the number of days on ventilator (13.5 versus 12.8 percent), or the length of hospital stay (seven against seven percent).
