Serious muscle disorders from statins are rare, according to risk calculator

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By Olivia Bowthorpe

Serious muscle complications from statins are uncommon for most patients, say researchers in Oxford who have developed a risk calculator to help guide prescribing.

Using data from more than 1.7 million NHS patient records to create the prediction model, the team found that over 99.6% of people eligible for statins had less than a 10% risk of serious muscle complications over the next decade.

Yet 62.5% of this group remained untreated, "despite some individuals presenting a very high cardiovascular disease risk," they reported in Lancet Digital Health.

"Given the arguably exaggerated concerns about muscle adverse events, knowing a personalised risk, which is very low for most individuals eligible for statin treatment, could help avoid inappropriate treatment withdrawal or hesitation", they concluded.

It follows a large study published earlier this year which found most side-effects linked to statins are not caused by the drugs.

In the latest analysis, the researchers calculated the risk of muscle disorders severe enough to require hospital admission.