http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/11/26/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.136101.abstract?sid=9dbca7c2-cde4-447b-a4c9-9b6b3727da87
Abstract
Background—Many clinicians believe that statins cause muscle pain, but this has not been observed in clinical trials and the effect
of statins on muscle performance has not been carefully studied.
Methods and Results—The
Effect of STatins On Skeletal Muscle Function and Performance (STOMP)
study assessed symptoms and measured creatine kinase
(CK), exercise capacity, and muscle strength
before and after atorvastatin 80 mg or placebo were administered for 6
months
to 420 healthy, statin-naive subjects. No
individual CK value exceeded 10 times normal, but average CK increased
20.8 ± 141.1
U/L (p less than 0.0001) with atorvastatin. There were
no significant changes in several measures of muscle strength or
exercise capacity
with atorvastatin, but more atorvastatin than
placebo subjects developed myalgia (19 vs 10; p = 0.05). Myalgic
subjects on
atorvastatin or placebo decreased muscle
strength in 5 of 14 and 4 of 14 variables respectively (p = 0.69).
Conclusions—These
results indicate that high-dose atorvastatin for 6 months does not
decrease average muscle strength or exercise performance
in healthy, previously untreated subjects.
Nevertheless, this blinded, controlled trial confirms the undocumented
impression
that statins increase muscle complaints.
Atorvastatin also increased average CK suggesting that statins produce
mild muscle
injury even among asymptomatic subjects. This
increase in CK should prompt studies examining the effects of more
prolonged,
high-dose statin treatment on muscular
performance.
Clinical Trial Registration Information—www.clinicaltrials.gov; Identifier: NCT00609063.
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