Statins for early stage chronic kidney disease: an overview of reviews

To assess the efficacy of statin therapy on early stage chronic kidney disease through an overview of systematic reviews.

We searched for systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials (RCT) on MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, CRD, and Scopus. Independent reviewers selected the studies and extracted the relevant data. We critically appraised the included systematic reviews with the AMSTAR tool and presented the available data in the studies.

From 731 retrieved records, we included three systematic reviews. Statins reduced the risk of mortality for all causes and for cardiovascular causes in patients with early stage chronic kidney disease as compared to the control (high-quality evidence). Statins also reduced the incidence of any myocardial infarction, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and stroke (moderate- to high-quality evidence). No differences were observed between statins and control upon the incidence of end-stage renal disease or on the outcomes assessed in patients with coronary artery disease and diabetes.

Statins reduce the incidence of death and other relevant outcomes in patients with early stage chronic kidney disease and should be considered for such individuals who also present hyperlipidemia.