Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

The prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the elderly is very important. The prevention of cardiovascular risk is essential in order to avoid the morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases. The objective of this study was therefore to assess the frequency of prescription of statins in elderly with diabetes and to analyze the benefit risk ratio of this prescription.

Patients and methods

Retrospective study which involved 94 diabetic subjects aged over 65 years who were hospitalized in the endocrinology department of Mahdia or followed at the outpatient clinic between the month of November and the month of December 2020.

Results

The mean age was 71 ± 5 years with extremes of 65 and 90. All of our patients had type 2 diabetes. The mean duration of diabetes was 12 years ± 8. A quarter of the patients had chronic renal failure (24.46%). Hypothyroidism was found in 14.9% of our patients. The subjects who required treatment with statins according to the recommendations represented 57% of patients, of whom 92.6% were treated. Of these patients, 26.7% achieved the therapeutic goal of LDL-cholesterol according to the level of cardiovascular risk. Patients over 80 years of age accounted for 7.4% of all elderly subjects. None of these patients was prescribed with statins. For patients treated with statins, no adverse effects have been reported despite advanced age and associated comorbidities. No cardiovascular events were noted after the prescription of statins in this cohort. A statin withdrawal was observed in two patients with no obvious medical cause. It would be related to non-adherence to therapy in these patients.

Conclusion

Through this study, we observed good tolerance after taking a statin in diabetic patients despite advanced age with an obvious benefit given the absence of cardiovascular events and the absence of side effects.