Statins do not increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in familial hypercholesterolemia: The SAFEHEART study

article i nfo Background:FamilialHypercholesterolemia(FH)isthemostcommonmonogenicdisorderthatcausespremature coronary artery disease (CAD). Our objective was to examine the risk of new onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among FH patients and unaffected relatives in relation to treatment with different statins in the SAFEHEART cohort study. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and prospective cohort study in 2558 FH and 1265 unaffected relatives with a mean follow-up of 5.9 years. Several pertinent data, such as age, gender, metabolic syndrome, lipid profile, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, HOMA-IR, dose, duration and type of statins, were obtained and exam- ined as predictors of incident diabetes. Results: The new onset diabetes was 1.7% in FH and 0.2% in non FH patients (p = 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression,age (OR1.02,CI95%:1.02-1.08),HOMA-IR (OR1.17,CI95%:1.03-1.33),metabolicsyndrome(OR3.3, CI 95%: 1.32-8.28) and specifically plasma glucose, as a component of metabolic syndrome (OR 15.7, CI 95%: 4.70-52.53)weresignificant predictorsof new onset T2DM intheFH groupalone. In theadjusted Cox regression model in FH group, age (HR 1.03, CI 95% 1.00-1.06, p = 0.031) and metabolic syndrome (HR 4.16, CI 95% 1.58- 10.92, p = 0.004) remained significant predictors of new onset T2DM.