|Letters Statins and myotoxicity

The withdrawal of cerivastatin from the world market because of deaths from rhabdomyolysis (a disorder that results from skeletal muscle injury with release of muscle cell contents into the plasma) focused attention on the risk of adverse events and, in particular, myotoxicity that are associated with statins. The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for International Drug Monitoring carried out an evaluation of statins using the WHO database. The study demonstrated that, qualitat-ively, there is a similarity among the safety profiles of all clinically used statins with respect to serious suspected adverse reactions and the most frequently reported cases. Furthermore, based on an analysis of spontaneous reports (i.e. those provided by patients and doctors), there appears to be a strong link between cerivastati