Association of statin use and development of renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetes—The Hong Kong Diabetes Registry Andrea O. Luk a,1 , Xilin Yang a,1 , Ronald C. Ma a, *, Vanessa W. Ng a , Linda W. Yu a , Winnie W. Lau a , Risa Ozaki a , Francis C. Chow a , Alice P. Kong a,b , Peter C. Tong a,c , Juliana C. Chan a,c , Wingyee So a a Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China b Li Ka Shing Institute of Health and Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China c Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 1. Introduction Amongst all diabetes-associated complications, diabetic nephropathy has probably the most detrimental consequences resulting in dialysis and heightened cardiovascular risks [1,2]. Asians, including Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes, have a greater propensity to develop renal complications, affecting 60% of them as compared to 30–40% in Caucasians given similar disease duration [3–5]. Chronic kidney disease is associated with dyslipidaemia, typified by low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and high triglyceride [6,7]. Moreover, large scale epidemiologic and clinical studies suggested that dyslipidaemia per se, in addition to established risk factors of hypertension and hyperglycaemia, may play a diabetes research and clinical practice 88 (2010) 227–233 article info Article history: Received 4 November 2009 Received in revised form 3 February 2010 Accepted 11 February 2010 Published on line 16 March 2010 Keywords: Type 2 diabetes Renal dysfunction Statin abstract Aim: Dyslipidaemia may be a risk factor for diabetic kidney disease. We examined pro- spectively association between the use of statins and development of renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. Methods: A consecutive cohort of 5264 diabetic patient recruited between 1996 and 2005 underwent detailed assessments. Renal dysfunction was defined as first estimated glomer- ular filtration rate <60 ml/min/1.73 m 2 , or, the first hospitalisation with a diagnosis of renal disease as coded by the International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision. Drug use was quantified using the proportion of exposure time from baseline to event/death/censored time, as appropriate. Results: In this cohort (male: 47.3%, median age: 55 years, median duration of diabetes: 6.0 years), none had renal dysfunction at baseline. During a median follow-up period of 4.9 (quartiles: 2.77, 7.04) years, 703 patients (13.4%) developed renal dysfunction, 1275 patients (22.2%) were exposed to statins. After controlling for baseline risk factors, multivariable adjusted hazard ratio of statin use for development of renal dysfunction was 0.32 (95% CI 0.21–0.50, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Use of statins was associated with reduced risk of developing renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetes and this association was independent of baseline risk factors. # 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2632 2211; fax: +852 2632 3108. E-mail address: rcwma@cuhk.edu.hk (R.C. Ma). 1 Both authors contributed equally. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/diabres 0168-8227/$ – see front matter # 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2010.02.006