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Oral administration of ongoing medications, including statins, is often interrupted in stroke patients who are unable to swallow, to reduce their risk of bronchoaspiration. Emerging data indicate, however, that statin treatment may be beneficial in the acute phase of stroke and that precipitous withdrawal of statin therapy might be associated with untoward clinical effects. To properly assess the clinical consequences of statin interruption in acute stroke, these authors randomized 89 patients who had experienced acute ischemic stroke and who were taking statins, to either continue the medication regimen or interrupt it for the first 3 days after admission.. The 43 patients whose statin treatment was uninterrupted received 20 mg of atorvast…