Renal effects

Recent reviews of published trial data, focusing on renal function, on placebo vs. statin, and tracking renal function over time have shown a small but distinct effect of statins to lessen renal dysfunction, when added to treatment (compared to placebo), and to slow the progression of further renal function decline over time.[citation needed] All the statins have a somewhat dose related response to increase urine protein levels, rosuvastatin the strongest association. Because increased urine protein has long been relied upon as a warning sign of renal glomerular dysfunction, this increase as a result of statin treatment had been feared to indicate a negative effect on renal function.

However, all current evidence, see reference 6 and others, is that the increase in urinary protein is from the renal tubular cells, not the glomeruli, and is due to cholesterol synthesis inhibition within the tubular cells and is not associated with any decline in renal function. Instead, as mentioned above, clinical experience is that renal function, especially in those with partial renal failure, actually improves slightly and the rate of further decline decreases compared with those in the same trials who were randomized to the placebo agent.

Human trial evidence and better information

More recent human controlled research trial data continues to be more promising. One of the most recent was a 2 year trial of rosuvastatin treatment, the ASTEROID trial, in reported in 2006 that when several hundred people were treated with Crestor at the highest currently approved dose of 40 mg a day, IVUS showed some reversal of atherosclerotic plaque within the coronary arteries.