Kidney Injury Risk Elevated by High-Dose Statins

The rate of diagnosis for acute kidney injury in hospital admissions is higher with the use of high-potency statins than with low-potency statins, according to a retrospective observation analysis.

Canadian researchers looked at rates of hospitalization for acute kidney injury among more than 2 million patients aged 40 years and older from 7 Canadian provinces and 2 UK and US databases for whom statins had been newly prescribed. A high-dose statin was defined as 10 mg or more of rosuvastatin, 20 mg or more of atorvastatin, and 40 mg or more of simvastatin.

Patients assigned to take high-dose statins were 34% more likely to be hospitalized for acute kidney injury within 120 days of starting treatment than patients assigned low-dose statins. Although an increased risk in hospitalization for acute kidney injury was found for patients with no previous disease, no increase was seen in patients who had chronic kidney injury before statin prescription.

“Given what is likely to be a small magnitude of incremental cardiovascular benefit of high-potency statins over low-potency statins in reality, a pressing question is how to identify patients for whom the risk-benefit balance for high-potency statin treatment is unfavorable,” the researchers wrote.

The study, Use of High Potency Statins and Rates of Admission for Acute Kidney Injury: Multicenter, Retrospective Observational Analysis of Administrative Databases, was published recently in BMJ.