Statin Use Associated with Lower Pneumonia Risk in Melioidosis Patients: Study

Statins, commonly used to manage cholesterol levels, have been previously linked to a reduced risk of pneumonia and other infections. However, it remains unclear whether statin use specifically lowers the risk of pneumonia compared to other clinical presentations of infection caused by the same pathogen.

A recent study aimed to investigate the association between preadmission statin use and pneumonia risk among hospitalized patients with melioidosis, caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei. This study was published in the journal of Annals of the American Thoracic Society by TD Coston and colleagues.

Melioidosis, caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, is a serious infectious disease prevalent in tropical regions. Pneumonia is a common clinical presentation of melioidosis, but whether statin use affects the risk of pneumonia in these patients has not been extensively studied.

The study conducted a secondary analysis of a prospective multicenter cohort study involving patients hospitalized with culture-confirmed B. pseudomallei infection (melioidosis). A total of 1,121 patients were included in the analysis, of which 141 were statin users and 980 were statin nonusers. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to assess the association between statin use and pneumonia risk.

Key Findings:

• Among the patients analyzed, 33% of statin users presented with pneumonia compared to 44% of statin nonusers.

• Statin use was associated with a significantly lower risk of pneumonia, with a relative risk of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.57-0.94; P = 0.02) after adjustment for demographic variables, comorbidities, environmental exposures, and symptom duration.

• Sensitivity analyses, including active comparator analysis and inverse probability of treatment weighting, confirmed the consistent association between statin use and reduced pneumonia risk.

The study suggests that preadmission statin use is associated with a lower risk of pneumonia compared to other clinical presentations of melioidosis in hospitalized patients. This finding highlights a potential lung-specific protective effect of statins in individuals with melioidosis. Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this association and explore the therapeutic implications of statin use in infectious diseases.

Reference:

Coston, T. D., Wright, S. W., Phunpang, R., Dulsuk, A., Thiansukhon, E., Chaisuksant, S., Tanwisaid, K., Chuananont, S., Morakot, C., Sangsa, N., Chayangsu, S., Silakun, W., Buasi, N., Chetchotisakd, P., Day, N. P. J., Lertmemongkolchai, G., Chantratita, N., & West, T. E. Statin use and reduced risk of pneumonia in patients with melioidosis: A lung-specific statin association. Annals of the American Thoracic Society,2024;21(2):228–234. https://doi.org/10.1513/annalsats.202306-552oc