Statin Use Correlates with Reduced Risk of Pyogenic Liver Abscess: A Population‐Based Case–Control Study

Abstract

Little research is available on the relationship between statin use and pyogenic liver abscess. The objective of the study was to determine whether prior use of statins is associated with pyogenic liver abscess. This case-control study was conducted to analyse the claim data of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. There were 1828 participants aged 20-84 years with first episode of pyogenic liver abscess from 2000 to 2013 as the cases and 1828 randomly selected participants without pyogenic liver abscess matched with sex, age and index year as the controls. Statin use was defined as 'current', 'recent' or 'past' if the statin prescription was filled ≤3 months, 3-6 months or >6 months before the date of pyogenic liver abscess diagnosis, respectively. Relative risk of pyogenic liver abscess associated with statin use was estimated by the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) using the multivariable logistic regression model. After controlling for potential confounders, the adjusted ORs of pyogenic liver abscess were 0.65 for participants with current use of statins (95% CI 0.50, 0.84), 0.74 for participants with recent use of statins (95% CI 0.49, 1.11), and 1.10 for participants with past use of statins (95% CI 0.90, 1.34), compared with participants with never use of statins. In the further analysis, the adjusted ORs of pyogenic liver abscess were 0.65 for participants with cumulative duration of statin use ≥12 months (95% CI 0.48, 0.88) and 0.68 for participants with cumulative duration of statin use <12 months (95% CI 0.43, 1.07), compared with participants with never use of statins. Our findings provide strong evidence that patients with current use of statins are associated with a 35% reduced odds of pyogenic liver abscess. The protective effect is stronger for longer duration of statin use.

Population-Based Case-Control Study Assessing the Association between Statins Use and Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Taiwan

“…However, our findings were not inconsistent with Khan et al's meta-analysis reporting that statins use was significantly associated with a decreased risk of community-acquired pneumonia (adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.74 0.95; Khan et al, 2013 ). Our findings were also partially consistent with Liao et al's study reporting that statins use was significantly associated with a lower risk of pyogenic liver abscess (adjusted OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.50, 0.84; Liao et al, 2017b ).…”

Opposite effects of statins on the risk of tuberculosis and herpes zoster in patients with diabetes: A population‐based cohort study

“…To test the specificity of the findings by using a negative control outcome, the association between statin use and pyogenic liver abscess (code 572.0) was examined, in a manner as previously described . Pyogenic liver abscess was selected because: (i) it is common in patients with diabetes; (ii) its diagnostic accuracy in NHIRD may be more reliable than those of other infectious diseases, including pneumonia, because a sonography or computed tomography scan is an essential survey in Taiwan; and (iii) almost no studies have reported its association with statin use.…”

“…The primary outcome was incident TB, which was defined as the presence of ICD-9 codes 010-018 in ≥1 inpatient or ≥2 outpatient records along with the prescription of ≥2 anti-TB drugs for ≥28 days within a 180-day interval, as previously validated. 12 The secondary outcomes was incident herpes zoster (codes 053.0-053.9), 30 To test the specificity of the findings by using a negative control outcome, the association between statin use and pyogenic liver abscess (code 572.0) was examined, 31 in a manner as previously F I G U R E 1 Flow chart of the study. A 1:1:1 matching process is presented in the bottom part of Figure 1.…”

Successful treatment for infected biloma after endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy using double stent placement technique

“…A longer HGS stent may help to prevent reflux cholangitis [5] , but if infected biloma occurs around an EUS-HGS, the stent must be exchanged. Other adverse events including liver abscess, may occur due to various reasons, and should be treated [7][8][9][10][11] . Here, we describe treatment of a liver abscess around an EUS-HGS, using double stent placement stent in an elderly man who had a history of surgery for bile duct cancer.…”