Statins decrease risk of orbitopathy in newly diagnosed Graves´ disease

In patients with newly diagnosed Graves´ disease, treatment with statins may protect against the development of Graves orbitopathy, according to a study.

Researchers compared Graves orbitopathy incidence among 34,894 patients with newly diagnosed Graves’ disease. Among statin users, 77.1% used simvastatin, 28.9% used atorvastatin, and 8.2% used other statins. Graves orbitopathy was significantly less likely to develop in satin users. Lipid-lowering agents other than statins did not exhibit a similar protective effect.

The researchers concluded that further studies are needed to investigate statin use as a preventative treatment for orbitopathy in patients with newly diagnosed Graves´ disease.

Reference
Nilsson A, Tsoumani K, Planck T. Statins decrease the risk of orbitopathy in newly diagnosed patients with graves’ disease. J Clin Metab. 2021;dgab070. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab070