According to the government, several common drugs for high cholesterol and irregular heart beats can trigger to patients suffering rare muscle injuries on account of a problem in the way the medications are mixed, The Associated Press reported today.
The Food and Drug Administration said in a Friday warning addressed to health care experts that patients taking amiodarone, a heart rhythm drug, and more than 20 milligrams a day of simvastatin, a drug used to control elevated cholesterol levels, are more likely to suffer from serious muscle damage that can cause kidney failure and even death.
The U.S. agency first urged people in 2002 about an interaction between both drugs, but the warning hasn't resulted in putting an end to the problem. Over the past six years, 52 cases of serious muscle injury among people who took the two medicines have been reported, FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said. The majority of people in this particular situation required hospitalization.
The FDA strongly advised patients who are taking the heart rhythm drug to switch to other statins in order to control cholesterol. Amiodarone is predominantly used to treat irregular rhythms in the ventricles, the heart chambers that collect blood from the atria and pump it out of the heart.
People should contact their doctors immediately in case they develop muscle spasms, cramps, pain, tenderness or stiffness, the agency said.
The muscle injury high risk has been "very clearly stated" on Zocor's label starting 2002, Merck spokesperson Ron Rogers stated.
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