Is Atorvastatin Associated with New Onset Diabetes or Deterioration of Glycemic Control? Systematic Review Using Data from 1.9 Million Patients

Background. Current evidence indicates that statins increase the risk of new onset diabetes mellitus (NOD) and also deteriorate the glycemic control in patients with known diabetes mellitus (DM) after high-dose statin therapy. Aims. The aim of this review was to explore the effect of atorvastatin in causing NOD or deteriorating glycemic control in patients with DM. Methods. Two independent reviewers conducted the literature search, through PubMed database searching for articles published in English until April 2015, and only primary studies were included. Results. Of the 919 articles identified in our original search, 33 met the criteria for this review encompassing 1,951,113 participants. Twenty articles examined dysregulation of DM due to atorvastatin. Half of them showed that there was no significant change in glycemic control in patients treated with atorvastatin. Other studies showed that fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels were increased by atorvastatin. Thirteen articles examined if atorvastatin causes NOD. The majority of these articles showed that patients who used atorvastatin had a higher dose-dependent risk of developing NOD. Conclusion. This systematic review suggests that there is an association between atorvastatin treatment and NOD. Moreover, it showed that atorvastatin in high dose causes worsening of the glycemic control in patients with DM.