E-drug: Statins & rhabdomyolysis - Australian experience
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Dear Colleagues,
The following data has been kindly provided by Dr. Patrick Purcell
of the Australian Drug Adverse Reaction Section of the
Commonwealth Department of Health & Aged Care. The following
caveats should be noted.
1. ADRAC voluntary reporting data cannot be used to calculate
incidence as there are considerable uncertainties in both the
numerator and the denominator.
2. There is some imprecision in defining rhabdomyolysis. ADRAC
have quite a few reports of increased CPK (how high does the CPK
have to be before one calls it rhabdomyolysis?), myopathy and
myosistis as well as myalgia (where the CPK has not been
measured).
3. There are biases in the data - newer drugs tend to be reported
more frequently (compared to useage) than older drugs.
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ADRAC REPORT: Muscle Disorders with Statins - 9 August 2001
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Statin Total No Myalgia, Myopathy Reports of
of Reports and Myositis (% ) Rhabdomyolysis (%)
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Cerivastatin 148 68 (45.9%) 27 (18.2%)
- as monotherapy 7 ( 4.7%)
- with gemfibrozil 20 (13.5%)
Simvastatin 2248 427 (19.0%) 32 ( 1.4%)
Atorvastatin 679 130 (19.1%) 3 ( 0.4%)
Pravastatin 339 85 (25.1%) 3 ( 0.9%)
Fluvastatin 242 62 (25.6%) 1 ( 0.4%)
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Dr. Ken Harvey
Senior Lecturer
School of Public Health
Room 221, Building HS1 (NW9)
La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, Australia
Telephone +61 3 9479 5773, Facsimile +61 3 9479 1783
Personal mobile 0419 181910
Internet: http://www-sph.health.latrobe.edu.au/kharvey/
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