PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Victor Novack
AU  - Jean MacFadyen
AU  - Atul Malhotra
AU  - Yaniv Almog
AU  - Robert J. Glynn
AU  - Paul M. Ridker
TI  - The effect of rosuvastatin on incident pneumonia: results from the JUPITER trial
AID  - 10.1503/cmaj.111017
DP  - 2012 Apr 17
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - E367--E372
VI  - 184
IP  - 7
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/184/7/E367.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/184/7/E367.full
SO  - CMAJ2012 Apr 17; 184
AB  - Background: Evidence from observational studies have raised the possibility that statin treatment reduces the incidence of certain bacterial infections, particularly pneumonia. We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial of rosuvastatin to examine this hypothesis.Methods: We analyzed data from the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled JUPITER trial (Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin). In this trial, 17 802 healthy participants (men 50 years and older and women 60 and older) with a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level below 130 mg/dL (3.4 mmol/L) and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2.0 mg/L or greater were randomly assigned to receive either rosuvastatin or placebo. We evaluated the incidence of pneumonia on an intention-to-treat basis by reviewing reports of adverse events from the study investigators, who were unaware of the treatment assignments.Results: Among 17 802 trial participants followed for a median of 1.9 years, incident pneumonia was reported as an adverse event in 214 participants in the rosuvastatin group and 257 in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.69–1.00). In analyses restricted to events occurring before a cardiovascular event, pneumonia occurred in 203 participants given rosuvastatin and 250 given placebo (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.67–0.97). Inclusion of recurrent pneumonia events did not modify this effect (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.67–0.98), nor did adjustment for age, sex, smoking, metabolic syndrome, lipid levels and C-reactive protein level.Interpretation: Data from this randomized controlled trial support the hypothesis that statin treatment may modestly reduce the incidence of pneumonia.(ClinicalTrials.gov trial register no. NCT0023968.)