Small but Important Differences Seen Between Rosuvastatin, Atorvastatin

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) — There are small but important differences in risk for some clinical outcomes associated with rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, according to a study published online Oct. 29 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Shiyu Zhou, M.D., from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues compared the real-world effectiveness and safety of rosuvastatin and atorvastatin. The analysis included 285,680 eligible participants identified from the China Renal Data System (CRDS) and U.K. Biobank (UKB) databases.

The researchers found that six-year all-cause mortality was lower for rosuvastatin than for atorvastatin (2.57 versus 2.83 per 100 person-years in the CRDS database and 0.66 versus 0.90 per 100 person-years in the UKB database). Differences in cumulative incidence were −1.03 percent in the CRDS database and −1.38 percent in the UKB database. Rosuvastatin conferred lower risks for the secondary outcomes of major adverse cardiovascular events and major adverse liver outcomes. The risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus was higher in the UKB database with rosuvastatin, but the two medications carried similar risks for developing chronic kidney disease and other statin-related adverse effects.

“Rosuvastatin might be associated with cardiovascular and mortality benefits that need to be weighed against the risk for development of type 2 diabetes mellitus,” the authors write.

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