Statin initiation in high risk patients not to be delayed due to cataract risk: JAHA

Denmark: A recent study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that HMG-CoA reductase inhibition (the target of statins) is associated with a high risk of cataract development.

The authors, however, suggest that the beneficial effects of statins are unequivocal, "the reported link with lens opacities should not prevent statin initiation in high‐risk adults, but should be disclosed to the patient, particularly when indicated for primary prevention." Jonas Ghouse, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues wrote in their study. 

There have been increasing concerns regarding the potential cataractogenic effects of statin treatment. Dr. Ghouse and the team aimed to investigate whether common and rare genetic variants in HMGCR are associated with cataract risk, to gauge the likely long‐term effects of statin treatment on lenticular opacities. 

For this purpose, the researchers used genotyping data and exome sequencing data of unrelated European individuals in the UK Biobank for testing the association between genetically proxied inhibition of HMGCR and cataract risk. First, they constructed an HMGCR genetic score consisting of 5 common variants weighted by their association with low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol. Second, they analyzed exome sequencing data to identify carriers of predicted loss‐of‐function mutations in HMGCR. Then, common and rare variants were tested for association with cataracts and cataract surgery.