Response to comment on: Statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus.

In letter to the editor "Comment on: Statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus" authors found the statement "pravastatin 40 mg/d reduced the risk of diabetes by 30% in West of Scotland Coronary Prevention study" erroneous. As per our opinion the statement is right but had been referenced incorrectly.

Core tip: The statement “Pravastatin has shown to decrease the risk of developing diabetes by 30%” is correct and had been wrongly referenced in “Statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus” by Chogtu et al.

TO THE EDITOR

We thank Eren et al for showing interest in the review article “statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus”[1]. Eren et al[2] have pointed to an apparent factual error in the following statement: “pravastatin 40 mg/d reduced the risk of diabetes by 30% in West of Scotland Coronary Prevention study (WOSCOPS)”. However, in our opinion, this statement is correct if we refer to WOSCOPS 2001, in which authors have put forth that pravastatin in a dose of 40 mg/d resulted in a 30% reduction (P = 0.042) in the risk of diabetes[3]. Haffner[4] in an editorial in the same issue of Circulation has also alluded to the fact that Pravastatin reduced incidence of diabetes by 30% - though with a caveat that these results should be cautiously interpreted as the statistical significance in WOSCOPS 2001 was modest.

Regarding the review article “Statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus” the error is not in the statement but in quoting the reference. We should have referenced it as Freeman et al[3] rather than Kotseva et al[5]. We again thank Eren et al[2] to bring this error to our notice.