Statins in Management of Dyslipidemia in Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract

Dyslipidemia is one of the risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Statin is the drug of choice for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia in
patients with normal kidney function. There are abundant of data suggesting the benefit of statin treatment as primary or secondary CVD prevention. However, studies of statin in CKD patients have yielded conflicting results, especially in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) requiring renal replacement therapy. The 4D and AURORA studies failed to demonstrate the benefit of statin in dialysis patients, thus benefit of this drug in CKD patients was obviously less than that in patients without CKD. Furthermore, target blood cholesterol level for patients with impaired kidney function remains questionable. The decision to treat these patients with statin therefore requires balancing risk and benefit. Further large randomized controlled trial is required to answer this question.