Preventive cardiologySafety of Lovastatin/Extended Release Niacin Compared With Lovastatin Alone, Atorvastatin Alone, Pravastatin Alone, and Simvastatin Alone (from the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System)
Section snippets
Methods and Results
Using a computerized search engine (Qscan-FDA, DrugLogic, Reston, Virginia), we reviewed the adverse events reported to the United States Food and Drug Administration in which 1 of the following lipid-altering drugs was listed as suspect: atorvastatin, simvastatin, and pravastatin (the 3 most commonly used statins during the period of this analysis), Advicor (the combination of niacin-ER and lovastatin), and the 2 components of Advicor (lovastatin and niacin-ER). The analysis covered the period
Discussion
The present analysis explored the potential for the increased risk of adverse events with combination statin and niacin-ER therapy by comparing the rates of the AERs with the combination of lovastatin/niacin-ER with those observed with either drug alone and with other commonly used statins. The rationale for this approach was that had there been an increased risk of adverse events with the combination therapy, this would be reflected in a significantly higher rate of AERs associated with the
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