Definitions

All-cause mortality: Death due to any reason

Coronary events: Occurrence of cardiac death or a confirmed fatal or nonfatal heart attack

Cerebrovascular events: Occurrence of fatal and nonfatal strokes, including minor strokes

Discontinuations: Discontinuation of medication due to adverse events, indicating tolerability problems

Myalgia: Muscle soreness, tiredness, weakness, or pain, sometimes severe enough to affect activities of daily living (e.g. bathing, dressing, eating)

Kidney enzyme elevations: Mostly asymptomatic and reversible elevations in creatine kinase levels, which at very high levels may indicate muscle damage

Liver enzyme elevations: Mostly asymptomatic and reversible elevations in either alanine aminotransferase or aspartate aminotransferase, which at very high levels may indicate liver damage

Notes

The Statin Ranking Tool summarizes the quarter-century history of research on statin drugs. It is not intended as a tool to dictate treatment decisions. If you are a consumer or patient, you should always consult your local medical practitioner for advice on medical issues.

If you are a health care professional, you should always use your own medical, professional and personal judgment when using the Statin Ranking Tool. The Statin Ranking Tool is no substitute for individual patient assessment.

The Statin Ranking Tool is based on an analysis of 184 randomized controlled trials of statins including 260,630 individuals with or without cardiovascular disease.

For more information, please read the following scientific papers:

Naci, Huseyin (2014) Generating comparative data on clinical benefits and harms of statins to inform prescribing decisions: evidence from network meta-analyses. PhD thesis, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Naci H, Brugts JJ, Fleurence R, Ades AE. “Dose-comparative Effects of Statins on Serum Lipid Levels: A network meta-analysis of 256,087 individuals in 181 trials”. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 2013 Aug;20(4):658-70.

Naci H, Brugts JJ, Tsoi B, Toor H, Fleurence R, Ades AE. “Comparative Benefits of Statins in Primary and Secondary Prevention of All-cause Mortality and Major Coronary Events: A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled and active-comparator trials”. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 2013 Aug;20(4):641-57.

Naci H, Brugts JJ, Ades AE. “Comparative Tolerability and Harms of Individual Statins: A Study-Level Network Meta-Analysis of 234,550 Participants from 133 Randomized Controlled Trials.” Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2013 Jul 1;6(4):390-9.

Naci H, Brugts JJ, Fleurence R, Ades AE. “Comparative Effects of Statins on Major Cerebrovascular Events: A network meta-analysis of placebo-controlled and active-comparator trials”. Quarterly Journal of Medicine. 2013 Apr;106(4):299-306.

Naci H, Valkenhoef GHM, Higgins JPT, Fleurence RL, Ades AE. “Evidence-based prescribing: Using existing data on benefits and harms to choose among drugs”. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2014;7(5):787-92.

Naci H, Dias S, Ades AE. “Industry sponsorship bias in research findings: a network meta-analytic exploration of LDL cholesterol lowering in statin trials”. British Medical Journal. 2014;349:g5741.

See which statin is best for you or your patient by using the sliders to say how concerned you are about each of seven measures. Info and disclaimer
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Statin ranking tool
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by LSE & Kiln