January 16, 2015
The American Journal of Cardiology
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- In this prospective study, researchers evaluated 4645 patients with vascular disease to determine the association between statin use and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus. Independent from metabolic syndrome characteristics, statin therapy, especially intensive statin therapy, was associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Findings suggest that the risk for incident type 2 diabetes is increased with statin use in patients with vascular disease.
Abstract
Several trials and cohort studies have shown an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in patients using statins. Whether this only applies to patients at already high risk for the development of T2DM or for all patients is still a matter of debate. In the present prospective cohort study of 4645 patients with established vascular disease without DM at baseline, 3057 patients used statins at baseline, of whom 1608 used intensive statin therapy, defined as statin therapy theoretically lowering LDL-c with ≥40%. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the risk of incident T2DM with (intensive) statin therapy. Statin therapy was associated with increased risk of incident T2DM (HR 1.63; 95%CI 1.15-2.32) when adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, plasma HDL-c and plasma triglyceride levels. Intensive statin therapy tended to be related to a higher risk of T2DM when compared to moderate statin therapy (HR 1.22; 95%CI 0.92-1.61, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, plasma HDL-c and plasma triglyceride levels). The increase in risk was regardless of the number of metabolic syndrome characteristics or insulin resistance, but was particularly present in patients with low baseline glucose levels(