To the Editor: Walker and colleagues recently reported a series of patients with interstitial pneumonitis following use of statin cholesterol-lowering drugs.1 They state that other investigators have previously reported biopsy findings resembling amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity in pneumonitis associated with statin therapy. We believe this observation is pivotal to understanding the authors’ findings.
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- 1. Walker T, McCaffery J, Steinfort C. Potential link between HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (statin) use and interstitial lung disease. Med J Aust 2007; 186: 91-94. <MJA full text>
- 2. Bolt MW, Card JW, Racz WJ, et al. Disruption of mitochondrial function and cellular ATP levels by amiodarone and N-desethylamiodarone in initiation of amiodarone-induced pulmonary cytotoxicity. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 2001; 298: 1280-1289.
- 3. Phillips PS, Haas RH, Bannykh S, et al. Statin-associated myopathy with normal creatine kinase levels. Ann Intern Med 2002; 137: 581-585.
- 4. Alsheikh-Ali AA, Karas RH. Adverse events with concomitant amiodarone and statin therapy. Prev Cardiol 2005; 8: 95-97.
- 5. Fadic R, Johns DR. Clinical spectrum of mitochondrial diseases. Semin Neurol 1996; 16: 11-20.
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The work we cite in this letter is funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Award to Beatrice Golomb. The funding source had no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, or writing and publication of this letter.