Cholesterol-lowering statins can significantly trim down the mortality risk in ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis patients, a new study indicated.

In a population-based study, led by Dr. Amar Oza of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the researchers found that statins lowered the risk for mortality in ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis patients by up to 32 per cent.

Sharing the results of the study, Dr. Oza said, “With this amount of mortality benefit, if there are other reasons to start a statin, I certainly would have a lower threshold.”

The researchers reached the conclusion after examining the cases of people with the two conditions from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. To look at all-cause mortality rates in 2904 patients who used statin and 2904 who didn’t, the researchers used time-stratified propensity score matching.

However, the protective effect of statins reached statistical significance only when the reesachers combined patients with ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, not when they were examined separately.

Dr. Oza presented the results of the heartening study at the American College of Rheumatology 2016 Annual Meeting.