Dyslipidemia and heart failure: current evidence and perspectives of use of statins

heart failure (HF) is a condition with growing morbidity and mortality. dyslipidemia in HF is not concentrated around hypercholesterolemia as in coronary artery disease. as a corollary, the robust benefits seen with statins across the spectrum of CAD have not been replicated in HF. multiple potential pleiotropic effects of statins include anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, endothelial stabilization, antiapoptotic, anti-thrombotic, and modulation of the autonomic system apart from lipid lowering. these benevolent actions need to be counterbalanced with the potential derangement of ubiquinone, selenoprotein and endotoxin pathways. while small randomized and non-randomized studies demonstrated a multitude of benefits in clinical and surrogate endpoints, two large RCTs failed to demonstrate unequivocal benefits. however, multiple large meta-analyses do demonstrate definite improvement in clinical endpoints including death and heart failure hospitalization. the clinical likelihood of benefit was higher in younger patients with less advanced HF and use of lipophilic statins.