Statins linked to initial increase in polyneuropathy risk in diabetes: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2020-10-07T18:00:34+05:30 | Updated On 8 Oct 2020 2:25 PM IST

Denmark: Statin therapy does not mitigate or increase the risk of diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, according to a recent study in the journal Diabetes Care. However, during the first year, there was a slightly increased DPN risk among new users but it receded after >2 years of the study.

Owing to lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory effects statins may reduce diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) risk but also, their use has been associated with neurotoxicity. Frederik P. Kristensen, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues examined whether statin therapy affects the risk of DPN.

The researchers identified all Danish patients with incident type 2 diabetes during 2002–2016. The initiation of statin in new users was done between 180 days before and 180 days after their first diabetes record. Prevalent users had initiated statins before that period. Patients were followed for incident diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) using validated hospital diagnosis codes, starting 180 days after their first diabetes record

The study cohort consiaited of 59,255 (23%) new users, 75,528 (29%) prevalent users, and 124,842 (48%) nonusers; median follow-up time was 6.2 years.

Key findings of the study include:

The incidence rate of DPN events per 1,000 person-years was similar in new users (4.0), prevalent users (3.8) and nonusers (3.8).
The aHR for DPN was 1.05 in new users and 0.97 in prevalent users compared with statin nonusers.
New users had a slightly increased DPN risk during the first year (1.31), which vanished after >2 years of follow-up.
Findings were similar in on-treatment and propensity score-matched analyses and with additional adjustment for pretreatment blood lipid levels.

"Statin therapy is unlikely to increase or mitigate diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) risk in patients with type 2 diabetes, although a small acute risk of harm cannot be excluded," concluded the authors.

"Statin Therapy and Risk of Polyneuropathy in Type 2 Diabetes: A Danish Cohort Study," is published in the journal Diabetes Care.

DOI: https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2020/09/29/dc20-1004

diabetic polyneuropathytype 2 diabetesStatinsStatin therapy

Source : Diabetes Care

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751