Associations between inflammatory markers and myocardial injury in patients treated with pitavastatin : A retrospective clinical study.

BACKGROUND

Inflammation drives atherosclerosis and myocardial injury; pitavastatin's effect on related markers lacks research.

OBJECTIVES

For the purpose of ascertaining the link between inflammatory marker levels and myocardial injury indices in patients undergoing pitavastatin treatment.

METHODS

A retrospective study screened 105 pitavastatin-treated patients at the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University (January 2022-December 2024). After exclusion criteria application, 100 patients were recruited and stratified into the myocardial injury group (n=32) and non-myocardial injury group (n=68). The primary outcome measures included inflammatory markers, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and fibrinogen (FIB). The secondary outcome measures included lipid profiles such as total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE); as well as myocardial injury indices: cardiac troponin I (cTnI), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and myoglobin (Mb). Spearman's correlation analysis was executed to assess the correlation between baseline inflammatory markers and myocardial injury indices. Logistic regression analysis was adopted to pinpoint independent risk factors for myocardial injury.

RESULTS

Logistic regression analysis indicated that the baseline characteristics of the two groups were well matched (all P>0.05). Hs-CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, MCP-1, FIB, cTnI, CK-MB, LDH, Mb, TC and LDL-C in the myocardial injury group were higher than those in the non-myocardial injury group (all P<0.05). The incidence of MACE in the myocardial injury group was higher than that in the non-myocardial injury group (P=0.002). Spearman's correlation analysis revealed that hs-CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, MCP-1 and FIB suggested positive correlation with cTnI, CK-MB, LDH and Mb (all P<0.001). Logistic regression analysis suggested that elevated hs-CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α levels are independent risk factors for myocardial injury in patients receiving pitavastatin treatment.

CONCLUSION

In pitavastatin-treated patients, inflammatory markers correlate with myocardial injury; monitoring hs-CRP, IL-6, TNF-α improves prognosis.