Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Cardiology

Background: Statin therapy is the cornerstone of treatment of Hypercholesterolemia. However, side effects like CPK elevation and muscle symptoms like myalgia, myopathy up to Rhabdomyolysis may occur especially in the elderly. Objective: to assess the level of CPK in elderly patients using statins in a real life settings whether the patient had muscle symptoms or not. Methods: Patients aged 65 years old or over will be divided into 2 Groups: Group 1: comprising 900 patients on moderate to high intensity statin therapy for at least 6 weeks. Group 2: 100 age and gender matched individuals not on statin therapy as a control group. A simple Questionnaire was prepared to assess muscle symptoms of the patients and related CPK elevation. Results: 5.1% of the study group had muscle symptoms and CPK elevation, the majority of them had CPK elevation with muscle symptoms (60.8%), muscle symptoms without CPK elevation occurred in (39.1%) while only (6.5%) had CPK elevation without muscle symptoms. Simvastatin was the most associated type with CPK elevation and/or muscle symptoms, accounting for 15.6 % of the patients used this type. DM & IHD turned out to be important predictors for CPK elevation, accounting for 65.2% and 71.7% respectively

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