Many patients use drugs called statins for cardiovascular disease to reduce cholesterol levels. Although statins have many positive effects, they also have some side-effects. One of the main side-effects is muscle pain and weakness, which can cause a rise in muscle enzymes, and unfortunately can sometimes lead to a major breakdown in muscle tissue which can be fatal. We do not know why some people develop muscle problems while others do not. There is now also increasing evidence that your genes can affect how your body handles statins and can have an effect on how well the drugs work. The purpose of this study is to better define the risk factors for this muscle side-effect. Eventually, this information will be used to identify those patients who should not receive a statin but rather another medicine to reduce cholesterol. We will compare patients who have had muscle side-effects during statin treatment to those who have not.

Patients that meet the criteria to take part in the study will be identified using the General Practice Research Database. This is a large computerized database of anonymised information of patients in the community. This information can only be linked to patients’ identity via their General Practitioner (GP).

DNA samples will be collected directly from the patients’ General Practice and sent to the University of Liverpool to be analysed. All DNA samples will be anonymised when stored, and it will not be possible to trace the samples back to individual patients. Information collected for this study will be treated confidentially and will be used only for medical research purposes.

This study has been designed as a collaborative project by The University of Liverpool, the General Practice Research Database and The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, and has been funded by the Medical Research Council.