The meta-analysis by Ray et al1(p1030) found that statins therapy has “no benefit on all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention population.” Because of the importance of this study to clinicians and policy makers, its results and interpretation should be carefully examined.
In summarizing the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT) study,2 the authors calculated a risk ratio of 0.98, while the original publication reported a risk ratio of 0.87. This change alone may have biased against finding a statistically significant benefit for statin use.