Abstract
Background and Purpose—Although there is no overall association between statin use and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), whether there is an increased risk among those with a history of ischemic stroke (IS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) remains controversial. We evaluated the relationship of preadmission statin use with the risk of ICH in patients with a history of IS or TIA in a population-based cohort.
Methods—The Health Improvement Network primary care database in the United Kingdom was used to identify new users of low-dose aspirin and a matched comparison. Both cohorts were followed to identify incident cases of ICH, with validation by manual review of patient records and linkage to hospitalization data. In a nested case–control study, we compared the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for ICH based on statin use in the subgroup of individuals with history of IS/TIA.
Results—Last statin use within 1 year of ICH (OR, 0.92; 95% CI [confidence interval], 0.60–1.4), last use between 8 days and 1 year (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 0.99–3.28), and statin use at the time of ICH (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.49–1.21) were not associated with the overall ICH risk among 157 patients with ICH and 884 controls with a history of IS/TIA. There was also no difference in 30-day rates of fatal (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.41–1.64) or nonfatal (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.51–1.57) ICH.
Conclusions—Statin use was not associated with an increased risk of ICH among patients with a previous history of IS/TIA.