Effect of Cerivastatin 
on Serum Muscle Enzymes

Keimyung Medical Journal 2002;21(1):42-48.

Effect of Cerivastatin on Serum Muscle Enzymes

Cerivastatin이 혈중 근효소에 미치는 영향

김상현; 서창균; 조호찬; 이승현; 윤태성; 허지안; 조주현; 박재호

Abstract

Hypercholesterolemia is firmly established as a risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Cerivastatin is a third generation statin; a synthetic HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor which lowers plasma cholesterol level by inhibiting endogenous cholesterol synthesis. It has also been reported that cerivastatin is relatively well tolerated and has a low incidence of adverse effects. It has been also reported that less than 1% of the patients treated with cerivastatin experienced clinically significant elevation of muscle enzymes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cerivastatin on serum muscle enzymes. The patients with primary hypercholesterolemia were treated with statin at least 4 weeks in Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. We compared the effect of cerivastatin treatment (group A; 33 patients) on changes of muscle enzymes including creatine kinase (CK); aspartate transaminase (AST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) with other statin treatment group (group B; 46 patients). The group A produced statistically significant elevation of CK and AST (p<0.05) after treatment with cerivastatin when compared to the group B. More than three fold elevation of CK level was developed only in the group A (p=0.02). These results indicate that cerivastatin induces higher incidence of muscle enzymes elevation than other statins.

Key Words: Aspartate transaminase, Cerivastatin, Creatine kinase, Lactate dehydrogenase