Cholesterol-lowering drugs can reduce the risk of severe infection in patients suffering from heart disease or stroke, scientists said on Wednesday.
The drugs, known as statins, lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme that controls how much is produced in the body.
Doctors in Canada have also discovered that statins act against sepsis, a dangerous condition which is a major cause of deaths in hospital intensive care units.
In a study involving data on 69,000 elderly patients, the researchers said the drugs cut hospital admissions for sepsis by nearly 20 percent in patients who had been previously been treated for cardiovascular disease.
The use of statins in patients older than 65 years old with atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) was associated with a 19 percent reduced risk of sepsis, said Dr Donald Redelmeier, of Sunnybrook & Women's Hospital in Ontario, Canada, who headed the research team.
Sepsis is a serious infection caused by bacteria in the blood or body. It is particularly dangerous in the elderly and critically ill patients and can lead to organ failure and death.
Redelmeier and researchers from the University of Toronto studied data on older patients who had been hospitalized for stroke or heart problems. More than 34,000 had been prescribed a statin within 90 days of being discharged from hospital and an equal number had not been given the drugs.
After two years, 551 patients who had been taking statins were admitted to hospital for sepsis, compared to 667 patients in the control group.
The researcher, whose findings are reported online by The Lancet medical journal, called for more clinical trials to test the effectiveness of statins against sepsis.
Pfizer's Lipitor, Merck's Zocor and AstraZeneca's Crestor are among the leading statins.
A raised cholesterol level, along with smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and being overweight or obese, is a risk factor for heart disease, one of the biggest killers in Western countries.
Statins, which are taken by millions of people to reduce levels of LDL -- or so-called bad cholesterol -- have also been shown to reduce the risk of stroke.
LDL deposits fat in the arteries while HDL, or good cholesterol, carries it away.
French researchers who studied the impact of the drugs on Alzheimer's patients said they may also help to delay the progression of dementia.
