Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Do High-Dose Statins Cause Diabetes?

For attorneys reading this, of course consult with your doctor when considering any medications you are taking or may change. 


A recent report in JAMA may suggest that a high-dose statin therapy could  the risk of diabetes onset in a dose-dependent manner compared with more modest use, or so says a meta-analysis.


Results In 5 statin trials with 32 752 participants without diabetes at baseline, 2749 developed diabetes (1449 assigned intensive-dose therapy, 1300 assigned moderate-dose therapy, representing 2.0 additional cases in the intensive-dose group per 1000 patient-years) and 6684 experienced cardiovascular events (3134 and 3550, respectively, representing 6.5 fewer cases in the intensive-dose group per 1000 patient-years) over a weighted mean (SD) follow-up of 4.9 (1.9) years. Odds ratios were 1.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.22; I2 = 0%) for new-onset diabetes and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.75-0.94; I2 = 74%) for cardiovascular events for participants receiving intensive therapy compared with moderate-dose therapy. As compared with moderate-dose statin therapy, the number needed to harm per year for intensive-dose statin therapy was 498 for new-onset diabetes while the number needed to treat per year for intensive-dose statin therapy was 155 for cardiovascular events.

Conclusion In a pooled analysis of data from 5 statin trials, intensive-dose statin therapy was associated with an increased risk of new-onset diabetes compared with moderate-dose statin therapy. 

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