A Brazilian team conducted a pilot study of the effects of atorvastatin 20mg/day versus placebo for 12 weeks in 20 people with stable dermatomyositis (DM) or antisynthetase syndrome (SAS) and hyperlipidaemia. The results, published in 2021, showed good clinical muscle tolerance and an improvement in the lipid profile on atorvastatin.
The same team studied muscle biopsies from 16 participants in the pilot study, before starting treatment and 12 weeks after stopping it.
The results showed that atorvastatin did not cause any significant changes in genes linked to mitochondrial, oxidative, insulin, lipid or fibrogenesis metabolism, or any histological or histochemical changes in muscle.
In the authors’ view, these results support the safety of atorvastatin administration in the treatment of dyslipidaemia in people with dermatomyositis or anti-synthetase syndrome.
