The Effect of Statin Use on the Prevention and Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Introduction

This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to investigate the effect of statin on the prevention and progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease (DKD) hypothesizing that statin would elicit beneficial effects on patients with DKD.

Methods

PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL, and Web of Sciences were searched. The studies were included if they investigated the impact of statin on the development or progression of DKD. DKD development was defined as the occurrence of proteinuria or albuminuria due to type 2 diabetes. DKD progression was defined as the change in proteinuria, albuminuria, and GFR over time.

Results

The total number of the included patients was 36,938 from 27 studies. Statin use was significantly associated with reduction in DKD risk (HR=0.66; 95%CI: 0.58-00.76). Moreover, patients on statin had significantly lower deterioration in albuminuria (WMD=-21.81; 95%CI: -36.91- -6.70), proteinuria (WMD= -0.12; 95%CI: -0.12- -0.03) and GFR (WMD=-1.21; 95%CI: -2.20- -0.23).

Conclusion

Our study demonstrated that statin has beneficial effect on DKD by reducing albuminuria, proteinuria and GFR. These findings were reproducible among patients with microalbuminuria, patients on low intensity statins and patients on different treatment durations. Future larger high-quality trials are needed to investigate this topic and make more fine and reliable conclusions in the view of the encouraging findings we found in our analysis.