Journal of the Pancreas Open Access

Keywords

Anticholesteremic Agents; Pancreatitis; Poisoning; Salicylates

Dear Sir:

We read the case of combined salicylate and simvastatin induced pancreatitis by Antonopoulos et al. with great interest [1]. While the authors correctly identified the possible role of simvastatin in causing pancreatitis the patient was re-started on another statin rosuvastatin. The authors failed to take into account the fact that pancreatitis might be a class effect of statins. Similar to other statins, rosuvastatin has also been associated with pancreatitis.

Several months ago, in this journal, we reported a possible case of rosuvastatin induced pancreatitis in a patient with a previous episode of atorvastatin-induced pancreatitis [2]. Pancreatitis has occurred in less than 1% of patients on rosuvastatin in clinical trials [3].

The patient who has had pancreatitis with one statin is at a higher risk of recurrence with other statins and it would be prudent to avoid this class of drugs in the patient. Clinicians need to be aware that drug induced pancreatitis might be a class effect of statin drugs and the newest statin, rosuvastatin is as likely to be associated with pancreatitis as the other statins [2].

References

1. Antonopoulos S, Mikros S, Kokkoris S, Protopsaltis J, Filioti K, Karamanolis D, Giannoulis G. A case of acute pancreatitis possibly associated with combined salicylate and simvastatin treatment. JOP. J Pancreas (Online) 2005; 6:264-8. [PMID 15883478]
2. Singh S, Nautiyal A, Dolan JG. Recurrent acute pancreatitis possibly induced by atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. Is statin induced pancreatitis a class effect? JOP. J Pancreas (Online) 2004; 5:502-4. [PMID 15536291]
3. AstraZeneca. Rosuvastatin product information. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP 08/2003. [https://www.astrazeneca-us.com/pi/crestor.pdf]