Atorvastatin is widely prescribed for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia to prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases, a leading death cause in industrialized countries. There exists considerable inter-individual variability in response to statins, reflected by differences in lipid-lowering effect or risk of presenting adverse drug reaction; mainly myotoxicity. A plethora of different factors (demographic, genetic, physiopathologic, environmental...) have been tested to explain this variability but it lacks of pharmacokinetic (PK) data and/or replications of observations are rare and results remain inconclusive, probably because of non-adapted designs and no-clear driven-hypothesis but also due to a lack of scientific rationale and deep mechanistic understanding. This clinical study will explore individual factors influencing statin PK in a cohort of 150 patients treated with atorvastatin. The collection of meticulous clinical PK data and a rigorous statistical analysis will allow quantifying the effect of each identified parameter on statin PK and eventually, defining a population-based PK model taking into account the combined effect of all covariates in a quantitative approach. This innovative prospectively designed clinical study will ultimately allow predicting atorvastatin PK fluctuations and anticipating any inadequate dosing in clinical care.
This clinical study will explore individual factors influencing statin pharmacokinetics in a cohort of 150 patients treated with atorvastatin.