THERAPEUTICS
Review: limited evidence suggests that statins are safe in patients with liver disease
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
M D Onofrei
Dr M D Onofrei, Providence Physician Division, Milwaukie, OR, USA; mihai.onofrei@providence.org
QUESTION
Is statin therapy safe in patients with pre-existing liver disease?
REVIEW SCOPE
Included studies evaluated the safety of statins available in the USA in patients with pre-existing liver disease. Outcomes were elevations of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) concentrations or liver function tests, and survival.
REVIEW METHODS
Medline (Jun 2007), abstracts from major medical meetings, and references were searched for clinical trials, meta-analyses, and validation studies in English. 19 studies (n = 1563 receiving statins) met the selection criteria. Duration of follow-up ranged from 1 month to 6 years (median 9 mo).
MAIN RESULTS
Results are summarised in the table.
CONCLUSIONS
Little high-quality evidence is available on the safety of statin use in patients with liver disease. No evidence exists that statins advance liver disease, and some evidence indicates that statins may improve liver disease or increase survival.
Abstract and commentary
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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