Pancreatitis induced by statins

This paper was published in the Journal of the Pancreas 2004 Nov 10;5(6):502-4

Study title and authors:
Recurrent acute pancreatitis possibly induced by atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. Is statin induced pancreatitis a class effect?

Singh S, Nautiyal A, Dolan JG.
Department of Internal Medicine, Unity Health System, Rochester, NY 14626, USA. ssingh@unityhealth.org

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15536291

This paper reports the case of a woman who developed pancreatitis after treatment with statins.

(i) A 77-year-old female was presented to a medical facility with abdominal discomfort, nausea and vomiting for the past few days.
(ii) She had recently been started on rosuvastatin (Crestor) and her dose increased from 10 to 20 mg daily.
(iii) Statin induced pancreatitis was diagnosed and the patient improved with discontinuation of rosuvastatin.
(iv) Her medical history revealed that she had a similar episode of pancreatitis precipitated by atorvastatin (Lipitor) a year ago. A pimply rash and skin inflammation accompanied that episode.
(v) She was advised to avoid all statins in the future.

The study leader, Dr Sonal Singh, concludes that the occurrence of pancreatitis with two different statins in the patient argues that statins induced pancreatitis may be a class-effect of statins (side-effect of all statins).