FREQUENCY OF ADVERSE EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH STATIN USE IN ROUTINE CLINICAL PRACTICE IN PAKISTANI POPULATION

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of adverse events associated with statinsuse in routine clinical practice in Pakistani population.

Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted at PNS SHIFA a tertiarycare hospital in Karachi, Pakistan from January 2015 to December 2015. Maleand female patients aged between 20-80 years who were taking statin for morethan 3 months and were willing to participate in the study were included.Demographic data like age, gender, medical morbidities e.g. diabetes mellitus ,hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovasculr accident , type and doseof statin and outcome variables like hepatitis, myalgia, myositis andrhabdomyolysis were recorded in a performa. Sample size was calculated usingopen Epi software. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. P<0.05 was taken as significant.

Result: A total of 1350 patients aged between 20-80 years of age(Mean age55.7±10.2 years) were included in the study. There were 53.1 % male patients.Majority of patients (56.9%) were between 41-60 years of age group. About 58.2% patients had diabetes mellitus ,41.9 % had hypertension,26 % patients haddyslipidimia, 88%patients were with ischemic heart disease and 9.41%patientshad CVA. Rosuvastatin were prescribed to 56.3% patients, atorvastatin to 33%and simvastatin to 10.7% patients. Regarding the adverse effects, myalgias weremost frequently reported in 6.7 % patients; myositis was noted in 0.8 % patients,while rhabdomyolysis was not reported in any patient. Statin induced hepatitiswas noted in 2.9%.

Conclusion: There is overall a low frequency of adverse events associated withthe use of commonly prescribed statins in routine clinical practice. Further largescale studies are needed to validate our findings.