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Unintended effects of statins in men and women in England and Wales: population based cohort study using the QResearch database

BMJ 2010; 340 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c2197 (Published 20 May 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c2197

Rapid Response:

Is there acute kidney failure with statin use?

This paper is a very large study of statin use and possible
consequences. The study has many comparisons and some statistician would
have to comment on the valitidy of so many variables is one study.

The author finds many items of possible interest, many of which have
been reported previously, but acute renal failure is new in this study.
The references to the literature of kidney failure with statin use include
references 8 and 9 which are large studies of statin use in which kidney
failure is NOT mentioned and reference 28 which is a letter to the editor
of Lancet commenting on FDA data--in no way a controlled or observational
study.

Thus, this paper seems to be the first large study to find acute
renal failure with statin use. Since it is well recognized that muscle
injury and rhabdomyolysis is seen with statin use, and was found in this
study, and rhabdomyolysis is recognized as a possible cause of kidney
injury, perhaps the author could see in the same patients with
rhabdomyolysis had kidney injury.

Until the association of kidney injury with statin use is found by
others a cautious approach to this conclusion is warranted.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

05 July 2010
Meyer Lifschitz
Nephrologist
Jerusalem 96427