Statins and renal function

Statins and renal function

When prescribing a high-dose statin, physicians no longer need to monitor liver function tests, but might want to consider monitoring renal function, at least for the first 3 months. Last year, the FDA removed labeling requiring periodic monitoring of liver enzyme tests, but now a Canadian study suggests that high-potency statins (defined as doses of at least 40 mg simvastatin, 20 mg atorvastatin, or 10 mg rosuvastain) may be associated with acute kidney injury. Researchers reviewed records of more than 2 million patients from nine population-based cohort studies comparing current and past use of high-potency vs low-potency statin therapy. Patients hospitalized for acute kidney injury were matched with 10 controls. About 3% of patients had chronic kidney disease (CKD) at the onset of the study. Within 120 days of starting therapy, there were 4691 hospitalizations for acute kidney injury in patients without CKD and 1896 hospitalizations in patients with CKD. In patients without CKD, current users of high-potency statins were 34% more likely to be hospitalized with acute kidney injury compared to low-potency statin users (fixed effect rate ratio 1.34; 95% CI, 1.25-1.43). In patients with CKD, the increase was about 10% with high-potency statins (risk ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.99-1.23). The authors conclude that use of high-potency statins is associated with an increased rate of acute kidney injury compared to low-potency statins, with the effect strongest in the first 120 days of treatment. The authors further suggest that since there is a relatively small incremental cardiovascular benefit between high-potency and low-potency statins, and given the increased risk of rhabdomyolysis, diabetes, and acute kidney injury, patient selection for risk-benefit is important (BMJ 2013;346:f880).