More Kidney Disease With Long-Term Use of Statins

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More Kidney Disease With Long-Term Use of Statins


A large, 8-year retrospective study with a median 6.4-year follow-up associated long-term statin use with an increased risk of kidney disease.  Statin users, compared with case-matched controls who didn’t use statins, showed a 30% to 36% greater prevalence of kidney disease during follow-up averaging 4.5 in the analysis of healthcare insurance plan members published December 1, 2015 in the American Journal of Cardiology, with lead author Dr Tushar Acharya (University of California, San Francisco).
However, patients who are taking statins should not stop taking them based on this study, senior author Dr Ishak A Mansi (University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas) stressed in an interview with Medscape. “Our study did not examine whether the benefits outweigh the risk (it was not designed for that),” he noted. Moreover, there is strong evidence for overall benefit of statins for secondary prevention.
“Our paper says to scientists, physicians, funding agencies, [and] policy makers: ‘Watch out, [it] seems that we still do not know enough about the long-term effects of these drugs on [the] overall well-being of patients.'”
Although the current study “has unique findings . . . it shouldn’t be used as a final say in the controversy,” he said. “Clinicians should tell their patients that there may be statin side effects we are not aware of, but there are also benefits that we are aware of.” Clinicians also need to carefully monitor creatinine levels in patients taking statins.


Acharya T, Huang J, Tringali S, et al. Statin use and the risk of kidney disease with long term follow-up (8.4-years study). Am J Cardiol 2015; DOI: 10.1016/J.AMJCARD.2015.11.031. Abstract

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