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Statins May Reduce Risk of Diabetes After Acute Pancreatitis
A retrospective study of a commercial insurance database revealed that patients who were taking statins had a 42% lower risk of developing diabetes mellitus (DM) following acute pancreatitis than patients who had not been taking statins.
“Patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) have at least a 2-fold higher risk for developing postpancreatitis diabetes mellitus (PPDM),” the authors noted. “No therapies have prevented PPDM. Statins were demonstrated to possibly lower the incidence and severity of AP but have not been studied to prevent PPDM.”
To assess whether statins might be protective against development of DM after developing AP, the researchers analyzed data from the Optum Clinformatics claim database. The team reviewed the records of 118,479 patients without a previous diagnosis of DM who were admitted for a first episode of AP. Included in this analysis were data regarding patients who were regular users of statins—defined as those who had filled statin prescriptions for at least 80% of the year before their diagnosis with AP.
“With a median of 3.5 years of follow-up, the 5-year cumulative incidence of PPDM was 7.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.9% to 8.0%) among regular statin users and 12.7% (95% CI, 12.4% to 12.9%) among nonusers,” the authors reported. “Regular statin users had a 42% lower risk of developing PPDM compared with nonusers (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.65; P < .001). Irregular statin users had a 15% lower risk of PPDM (hazard ratio, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.81 to 0.89; P < .001). Similar benefits were seen with low, moderate, and high statin doses.”
The researchers called for further prospective studies with long-term follow-up to study the impact of statins on prevention of PPDM.
—Rebecca Mashaw
Reference:
Thiruvengadam NR, Schaubel DE, Forde K, Lee P, Saumoy M, Kochman ML. Association of statin usage and the development of diabetes mellitus after acute pancreatitis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. Published online ahead of print June 21, 2022.
