A research team led by Allan Gaw, director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, analyzed data from the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS), which was designed to determine the effectiveness of a statin in preventing a first heart attack in people with high cholesterol.

They found that those given a statin had a 30 per cent reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The findings could add a new dimension to the landmark Lipids in Diabetes Study (LDS), a major clinical outcome trial being carried out at Oxford's Diabetes Trials Unit. The six year prospective study, involving 5000 patients, aims to determine whether lipid lowering with cerivastatin (Lipobay, Bayer), either in combination or alone with a fibrate (fenofibrate), can substantially reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Gaw and colleagues used WOSCOPS data from 5,974 men, ages 45 to 64, to examine the effect of pravastatin on the development of diabetes. Among the men, 153, or 2.6 per cent, developed the disease.

The 30 per cent risk reduction for diabetes that they found among statin users was eye-catching, Gaw said. However, he acknowledges that because of the relatively few men who developed the disease, further large, randomized studies are needed to confirm the finding.

While most lipidologists agree that there is a clear class effect shown by statins, an unanswered question from the study is whether the findings apply to all drugs in the statin family.

Ian Young, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at the Queen's University of Belfast, commented:

"In general the effects of statins on cardiovascular disease appears to be a class effect. It's important to confirm this new finding with other studies and with other statins. While it may be specific to pravastatin, it's likely to be another example of a class effect.

"If these findings are confirmed, it will strengthen the case for using statins in primary prevention at lower levels of risk," he added. "We are in the middle of a considerable increase of type 2 diabetes which is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. A 30 per cent reduction in type 2 diabetes would lead to enormous benefits to individuals and savings in healthcare costs."

Co-authors of the paper with Dr. Gaw are Dilys J. Freeman, Ph.D.; John Norrie, M.Sc.; Naveed Sattar, Ph.D.; R. Dermot G. Neely, M.D.; Stuart M. Cobbe, M.D.; Ian Ford, Ph.D.; Christopher Isles, M.D.; A. Ross Lorimer, M.D.; Peter W. Macfarlane, Ph.D.; James H. McKillop, M.D.; Christopher J. Packard, Ph.D., and James Shepherd, Ph.D.

23-Jan-2001