The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Statins induce pneumonia

This post includes a summary on a paper published in the European Respiratory Journal 2002; 19:577-580

Study title and authors:
Health Myths Exposed 2nd Edition
Books:
Statin-induced fibrotic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia
S. Lantuejoul1, E. Brambilla1, C. Brambilla2 and G. Devouassoux2
Depts of 1 Cellular Pathology and 2 Respiratory Medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, Université J.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.erj.ersjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/577

Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia is a disorder that affects the tissue that surrounds and separates the tiny air sacs of the lungs.

This paper describes a case of statin-induced lung injury, with a histological pattern of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia.

(i) A 51‐year-old male was admitted to hospital with fever, polymyalgia, cough and progressive dyspnoea for one month. He was been treated with simvastatin (Zocor) (5 mg·day) for six years.
(ii) Drug-induced pneumonitis (inflammation of the lungs) was highly suspected, so the simvastatin was discontinued and a corticosteroid therapy was added.
(iii) One month later the patients symptoms had not improved and investigations led to a diagnosis of fibrotic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia.
(iv) Six months later, a progressive response to corticosteroid therapy was observed with improvement of symptoms.
(v) One-month later, pravastatin (pravachol) was inadvertently introduced, and he rapidly deteriorated. He had shortness of breath, muscle pain and tests revealed abnormal substances in his lungs.
(vi) Statins were stopped, which led to progressive improvement.

This case highlights that pneumonia may be induced by statins

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