PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Grégory Pugnet
AU  - Laurent Sailler
AU  - Robert Bourrel
AU  - Jean-Louis Montastruc
AU  - Maryse Lapeyre-Mestre
TI  - Is Statin Exposure Associated with Occurrence or Better Outcome in Giant Cell Arteritis? Results from a French Population-based Study
AID  - 10.3899/jrheum.140906
DP  - 2015 Feb 01
TA  - The Journal of Rheumatology
PG  - 316--322
VI  - 42
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/42/2/316.short
4100  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/42/2/316.full
SO  - J Rheumatol2015 Feb 01; 42
AB  - Objective. To investigate the potential association between statin use and giant cell arteritis (GCA) course. Methods. Using the French National Health Insurance system, we included patients with incident GCA from the Midi-Pyrenees region, southern France, from January 2005 to December 2008 and randomly selected 6 controls matched by age, sex, and date of diagnosis. Statin exposure was compared between patients with GCA and their controls before GCA occurrence with a logistic regression. Influence of statin exposure on prednisone requirements during GCA course was explored with a Cox model, considering statin exposure as a time-varying variable. Results. The cohort included 103 patients (80 women, mean age 74.8 ± 9 yrs, mean followup 48.9 ± 14.8 mos), compared to 606 controls. Statin exposure (27.2% of patients with GCA and 23.4% of controls) was not associated with GCA occurrence (adjusted OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.76–1.96; p = 0.41). Diabetes mellitus was significantly associated to GCA occurrence (adjusted OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.11–0.72; p = 0.008). After diagnosis, exposure to statins up to 20 months was associated with maintenance while taking low prednisone doses (p = 0.01). Conclusion. Statin exposure was not associated with GCA occurrence in the general population. However, exposure to statins up to 20 months may favor a quicker corticosteroid tapering. Based on those results, statin effect on GCA course should not be definitively ruled out.