Via practica 1/2014

Safety treatment with statins

A large amount of residual risk remains in patients treated with statins. One possible explanation of that adverse effects may be the heterogeneity of statin responsiveness within the human population. Statin myopathy manifested as myalgia, myositis and rhabdomyolysis is most frequent clinical adverse effect. The prevention involves the reduction of statin dose, avoiding polytherapy with drugs involved in the same metabolic pathway. Currently only effective treatment is discontinuation of statin use in patients affected by clinical sympthomatology. Clinicaly important drug that interact with statins are fibrates, calcium antagonists, macrolide antibiotics, azole antifugal drugs, grapefruit juice. Statins now cary a US FDA warning that they may increase the risk of diabetes mellitus and may worsen glycemic control, but until further studies are done, statins should continue to be used on a careful assessment of risk and benefit!

Keywords: statins, adverse effects, safety treatment.