Do Statins Up the Risk of Microvascular Disease?

Diabetes patients who use statins do not have increased risk of microvascular disease, and, in fact, may have a decreased risk of manifesting such complications, according to a recent study.

In order to better understand the effect of statin use of patients with diabetes, Danish researchers examined 15679 statin users, comparing them to 47037 non-statin users, all with diabetes, over a 3 year period.
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The study showed a 40% decreased risk for retinopathy development, a 34% decreased risk in diabetic neuropathy, and a 12% decrease in developing gangrene in the foot for statin users, compared with non-statin users.

The study authors noted that it is unclear whether statins protect against certain manifestations of microvascular disease, which is a possibility according to their data. Investigators will need to address that in other studies including mendelian randomization studies, and randomized controlled trials.

The complete study is published in the September issue of The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

-Michelle Canales

Reference:

Nielsen SF, Nordestgaard BG. Statin use before diabetes diagnosis and risk of microvascular disease: a nationwide nested matched study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2014 July [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70173-1.