Thursday, December 02, 2010

The safety of statin drugs in patients with abnormal liver function tests---the GREACE study

A post-hoc analysis of the GREACE study, published in Lancet, looked at the use of atorvastatin in patients with abnormal liver function tests. These patients were believed to have non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study revealed findings in line with previous reports suggesting that statin drugs are safe in patients with elevated transaminases, at least those who do not have acute or symptomatic liver disease. But there was more. The patients with abnormal liver tests experienced a greater reduction in cardiovascular events attributable to atorvastatin than those with normal liver tests. Finally, patients with abnormal liver tests treated with atorvastatin had improvement in liver function whereas those not treated had worsening.


A related blog post containing the Lancet press release can be found here.

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