The following is on the front page of today's Daily Express newspaper:
High doses of
statins, prescribed to prevent heart disease and stroke, are linked to
higher rates of acute kidney injury, they say.
The
risk is highest in the first 120 days of treatment and stays raised for
at least two years after patients start taking the pills. Leading
doctors are now warning that the drugs should only be prescribed at a
low dose where possible.
Author of the Canadian
report, Professor Colin Dormuth, said: “In some cases, patients may be
exposed to unnecessary risk of kidney damage for small gains in
cardiovascular health. Although the absolute risk of kidney damage with
these drugs is low, our findings put into question the common approach
of using higher doses to push cholesterol levels lower and lower.”
Researchers
from Dr Dormuth’s University of British Columbia and the Lady Davis
Institute at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal studied more than
two million statin users.
They found that patients taking higher strength pills were more at risk of suffering acute kidney injury.
They
were at a 34 per cent greater danger of being hospitalised with kidney
problems within 120 days of starting treatment with high-dose statins
than low-dose pills.
About one in 500 patients
were hospitalised for acute kidney injury within a period of up to two
years – the length of the study – after starting a lower strength
statin, according to study published on bmj.com.
Acute
kidney injury, or acute renal failure, is the term used when the
kidneys cannot remove salt, water and waste products from the blood.
Dr
Pierre Ernst, professor of medicine at the McGill University Centre for
Clinical Epidemiology in Montreal, who was involved in the research,
said: “We are not saying don’t take statins.
“If
you are giving patients a high dose statin, let’s make sure there is a
good reason. A high dose might be beneficial for those who have had a
heart attack or have high cholesterol, and then they are life-saving.
“But
for the 40-year-old woman who exercises, doesn’t have high blood
pressure and only slightly raised cholesterol, there is no need to put
her on a high dose.”
Prof Peter
Weissberg, British Heart Foundation medical director, said: “Most people
in the UK are on low doses of statins. Further research is needed to
establish whether it is the statins or the underlying blood vessel
disease in people taking high doses that causes kidney problems.”
Statins
considered to be high potency were rosuvastatin at doses of 10mg or
higher, atorvastatin at doses of 20mg or higher, and simvastatin at
doses of 40mg or more.
All other statins were
considered low potency. Simvastatin is the most frequently prescribed
statin in the UK. Statins are extremely effective at reducing the fatty
substance which clogs arteries, triggering heart attack or stroke. More
than eight million Britons take statins and heart experts say that if
five million more took them it would cut heart attacks and stroke by
10,000 a year, saving 2,000 lives.
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