Higher Risk of Crestor Kidney Problems with Higher Statin Doses: Study

Vancouver, BCA new study has concluded there is risk for kidney damage amongst patients regularly taking popular statins such as Crestor in higher doses, according to a Postmedia report in the Vancouver Sun (3/20/13). While the risk is relative and quite small, it remains a risk amongst other Crestor side effects nonetheless.

The study, published in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal and undertaken by the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies, examined the health records of no fewer than two million patients in the US, Canada and Britain. The study concluded that patients taking higher doses of statins - including Crestor - face a small risk of acute kidney injury as compared with patients taking a weaker dose of a statin.

Crestor diabetes is one adverse reaction to Crestor that has become a concern, and the subject of serious debate. Myopathy, or muscle soreness, is another common complaint.

However, kidney impairment, in spite of the relatively small risk, also remains on the radar. According to the study, about one in 500 patients required hospitalization within two years of starting on low-strength doses of statins. Those taking higher-strength versions of Crestor and other statins faced a 15 percent increased relative risk of having kidney problems.

Doses were defined as 10, 20 and 40 milligrams or higher. The study, which included rosuvastatin (Crestor), did not appear to define what was considered a higher dose.

“We’re talking about a small effect, but it’s still important information for prescribers to have when they are making their treatment choices,” said Colin Dormuth, assistant professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of British Columbia, in comments published by Postmedia.

The Canadian study determined that patients started on high-strength statins were 34 percent more likely to be hospitalized for acute kidney injury than those who started low-potency statins in the first 120 days of treatment.

Statins such as Crestor are amongst the most-prescribed medications on the planet, according to various reports. Pundits have dubbed the statin as “the aspirin of the 21st century,” given the statin’s capacity to lower levels of so-called “bad cholesterol” - one of the devils long considered laying at the root of heart disease and the narrowing of arteries.

To that end, some health experts advocate that anyone over 50 should be prescribed a statin.

To be sure, statins are regarded as life-saving for heart and stroke patients plagued by high cholesterol. Yet they are often prescribed as “preventative maintenance” for healthy individuals with no history of heart disease. Studies have since found that for younger patients, including women and those without heart disease, the benefits remain small.

For them, the benefit/risk profile is tipped more toward risk, given the potential for Crestor diabetes and other Crestor side effects - including one that would give any statin patient experiencing muscle soreness cause for concern.

Crestor rhabdoymylosis presents as a serious condition in which muscle fibers are broken down and their contents, called myoglobin, are released into the blood stream. Myoglobin can cause kidney damage. In 2005, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, at that time director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, suggested the risk for rhabdoymylosis posed by Crestor was 6.2 times greater than associated rhabdoymylosis risk factors for all other statins combined. Individually, Wolfe noted, the risk for rhabdoymylosis generated by Crestor was 21.8 times greater than that of a competing statin with the lowest risk.

Many patients having suffered a serious adverse reaction to Crestor file a Crestor lawsuit. Meanwhile, Health Canada - the equivalent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US - updated the labeling for all statins available in Canada, warning of a small, increased risk for diabetes. The warning includes Crestor diabetes.