WASHINGTON - The U.S. government says patients taking some common
medications for high cholesterol and irregular heart beats can suffer severe
muscle damage because of a problem in the way the drugs interact.
The Food and Drug Administration warned Friday that doctors should use extra
care when prescribing Zocor, generic Zocor, or Vytorin to patients who are also
taking amiodarone, a heart rhythm drug marketed as Cordarone or Pacerone.
The agency said the danger is higher for patients taking more than 20 milligrams
a day of the cholesterol drugs.
The generic name for the cholesterol medications is simvastatin.
Muscle injury is a risk with any of the cholesterol drugs known as statins,
including Lipitor, particularly for the elderly. Although the risk of such
injuries is low overall, they can be serious because they can lead to kidney
failure and even death.
The FDA urged doctors to consider switching patients who are taking the heart
rhythm drug to other statins for controlling cholesterol. The heart medication
is mainly used to treat irregular rhythms in the ventricles, the heart chambers
that pump blood to the lungs and body.
A previous warning dating back to 2002 about the drug interaction apparently has
not put an end to the problem.
The FDA said since that time it has received 52 reports of serious muscle injury
to patients taking the combination of medications, and almost all the patients
had to be hospitalized.
