Soumyadeep Bose

Dr Soumyadeep Bose has just finished his advanced training in General & Acute Care Medicine and is awaiting the award of his fellowship by the Royal Australian College of Physicians. He has a particular interest in Endocrinology & metabolic health and is currently pursuing a master coursework in Endocrinology & Diabetes with the Queen Mary University of London. He is also the advisory advanced trainee representative of ANZGMU (Australia and New Zealand General Medicine Update).

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Role Of Statins In Clinical Outcomes Of Hospitalised Patients With Community Acquired Pneumoni

Aims
Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading infectious cause of death in developed countries. Previous studies indicate that statin usage may be associated with mortality benefits   in CAP, however, limited studies are available in the Australian healthcare settings. This retrospective study determined whether statin-users with CAP have improved clinical outcomes when compared to statin non-users.

Methods
All adult patients with CAP admitted to Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) between 1st January-31st March 2018 were included in this study. Data regarding patients’ demographic characteristics, pneumonia severity, statin usage, and clinical outcomes were obtained from medical records. Propensity-score matching was used to match known confounders between statin-users and non-users. The primary outcome measure for this study was to determine whether statin-users had a reduced in-hospital mortality or 30-day mortality when compared to statin non-users. Secondary outcome measures included any differences in length of hospital stay, admission to the intensive care unit and re-admissions within one month following hospital discharge between the two groups.

Results
Over a period of 3-months, 140 patients with CAP, mean age 69.3 (SD 17.2) (range 21-97) years, 52.1% females; were admitted to FMC. Fifty-six (40%) patients were on statins at the time of hospital admission and Atorvastatin was the most frequently prescribed statin (39.3%). Patients who were statin-users were more likely to be older males and were more likely to have cardiovascular risk-factors when compared to statin non-users (P<0.05). When compared to statin non-users, statin users had higher pneumonia severity scores but significantly lower CRP levels (P<0.05). There were no differences in in-hospital mortality [2 (2.4%) vs 2 (3.6%), P>0.05] or 30-day mortality [6 (7.1%) vs 5 (8.9%), P>0.05], between the two groups. Other clinical outcomes were also similar between the two groups (P>0.05).

Conclusions
This study suggests that clinical outcomes were similar between statin-users and non-users.