Original article

Fluvastatin use and risk of acute pancreatitis: a population-based case-control study in Taiwan

¹ College of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan
² Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taichung 427, Taiwan
³ Graduate Institute of Integrated Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan
⁴ College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan
⁵ Department of Family Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan
⁶ Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan

^* Corresponding author. Department of Family Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, No. 2, Yuh-Der Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan. E-mail address: wei@mail.cmuh.org.tw (S.-W. Lai).

Received: 24 September 2016
Accepted: 20 October 2016

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between fluvastatin use and acute pancreatitis in Taiwan.

Methods: Using the database from the Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) Program, we designed a case-control study which consisted of 3501 individuals aged 20-84 with new at-the-time diagnoses acute pancreatitis as the case group and 8373 randomly selected individuals without acute pancreatitis as the control group during the period of 1998-2011. Both groups were matched for sex, age, and index year of being diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. “Current use” of fluvastatin was defined as individuals whose last remaining tablet of fluvastatin was noted ≤ 7 days before the date of their being diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. “Late use” of fluvastatin was defined as individuals whose last remaining tablet of fluvastatin was noted within 8-30 days before the date of their being diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. “No use” of fluvastatin was defined as individuals who had never had a fluvastatin prescription. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for acute pancreatitis associated with fluvastatin use was examined using a multivariable unconditional logistic regression analysis.

Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the multivariable analysis showed that the adjusted ORs of acute pancreatitis were 1.17 for individuals with “current use” of fluvastatin (95% CI 0.69, 1.97) and 1.82 for individuals with “late use” of fluvastatin (95% CI 0.41, 8.19), but there was no statistical significance when compared with individuals with “no use” of fluvastatin.

Conclusions: In this this study, no association was detected between fluvastatin use and acute pancreatitis.