High-dose atorvastatin for preventing contrast-induced nephropathy in primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of high-dose atorvastatin on contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) occurrence in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary angioplasty.

Methods: We studied whether 80  mg atorvastatin loading and its subsequent use for 5 days (high-dose group) could prevent CIN as compared to those who received 10  mg atorvastatin (regular-dose group) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary angioplasty. The primary endpoint was incidence of CIN, defined as an at least 25% or at least 0.5  mg/dl increase in baseline serum creatinine within 5 days after contrast administration. The secondary endpoint was an in-hospital 1 and 6-month renal function change, and a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, renal failure requiring dialysis, heart failure, and target vessel revascularization.

Results: One hundred and ten patients were allocated to high dose and 108 to regular dose from August 2007 to February 2009. CIN incidence was 5.5% (6/110) in the high-dose group and 10.2% (11/108) in the regular-dose group, which is a nonsignificant difference (P = 0.193). CIN occurred significantly less in the high-dose than in the regular-dose group in subgroups of renal insufficiency (creatinine clearance ≤60  ml/min) [0% (0/28) vs. 16.7% (5/30); P = 0.024] and in the elderly patients who were at least 70 years old [4% (1/25) and 23.1% (6/26); P = 0.048]. Serum creatinine level tended to decrease in the high-dose group and increase in the regular-dose group, but the change was not statistically different (P = 0.093). The composite of clinical outcomes at 6 months was comparable in the high-dose and regular-dose groups (7.9 and 13.1%; P = 0.26).

Conclusion: High-dose atorvastatin pretreatment does not seem to prevent CIN in patients receiving primary angioplasty. However, it has the potential to lower CIN in patients with renal insufficiency and in the elderly.