@article {1608575,
	title = {Statins and the progression of age-related macular degeneration in the United States},
	journal = {PLoS One},
	volume = {16},
	number = {8},
	year = {2021},
	month = {2021},
	pages = {e0252878},
	abstract = {PURPOSE: To study the effect of statin exposure on the progression from non-exudative to exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of commercially insured patients diagnosed with non-exudative AMD (n = 231,888) from 2007 to 2015. Time-to-event analysis of the association between exposure to lipid-lowering medications and time from non-exudative AMD to exudative AMD diagnosis was conducted. Outcome measures included progression to exudative AMD, indicated by diagnosis codes for exudative AMD or procedural codes for intravitreal injections. RESULTS: In the year before and after first AMD diagnosis, 11,330 patients were continuously prescribed lipid-lowering medications and 31,627 patients did not take any lipid-lowering medication. Of those taking statins, 21 (1.6\%) patients were on very-high-dose lipophilic statins, 644 (47.6\%) on high-dose lipophilic statins, and 689 (50.9\%) on low-dose lipophilic statins. We found no statistically significant relationship between exposure to low (HR 0.89, 95\% CI 0.83 to 1.38) or high-dose lipophilic statins (HR 1.12, 95\% CI 0.86 to 1.45) and progression to exudative AMD. No patients taking very-high-dose lipophilic statins converted from non-exudative to exudative AMD, though this difference was not statistically significant due to the subgroup size (p = .23, log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: No statistically significant relationship was found between statin exposure and risk of AMD progression. Interestingly, no patients taking very-high-dose lipophilic statins progressed to exudative AMD, a finding that warrants further exploration.},
	issn = {1932-6203},
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0252878},
	author = {Ludwig, Cassie A and Vail, Daniel and Rajeshuni, Nitya A and Al-Moujahed, Ahmad and Rosenblatt, Tatiana and Callaway, Natalia F and Pasricha, Malini Veerappan and Ji, Marco H and Moshfeghi, Darius M}
}
