Clinical Trial of CoQ10 for Mild-to-Moderate Statin-Associated Muscle Symptoms

This study will recruit individuals who have had muscle symptoms while using a statin. During the first part of the study, volunteers will be given a statin medication to see if their muscle symptoms return. Those who experience muscle symptoms on this statin rechallenge will be invited to continue in the second part of the trial, in which participants will be randomly assigned to receive either CoQ10 or a placebo (sugar pill) to take with statin medication. We hypothesize that those who receive CoQ10 will experience an improvement in their muscle symptoms compared to those who receive placebo, and, secondarily, that those who receive CoQ10 will be more likely to continue taking the statin medication.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients with a history of muscle symptoms (such as aches, pains, cramps and/or weakness) while taking a statin drug that persisted for at least 2 weeks on a statin

Exclusion criteria

• Plasma creatine kinase levels > 3 times the upper normal limit
• Liver enzymes, alanine transferase (ALT) or aspartate transferase (AST) > 2 times the upper normal limit
• Pregnancy or breastfeeding (a contraindication for statin use)
• Severe renal impairment, defined as glomerular filtration rate (GFR) < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2
• Bleeding disorder, current use of warfarin, an international normalized ratio (INR) greater than 1.5, or a platelet count less than 100,000 mm3
• Contraindication to strength testing, including myocardial infarction, unstable angina, or revascularization procedure within the past six weeks, a history of brain aneurysm or stroke
• Chest or abdominal surgery within the past six weeks
• Severe persistent pain related to other causes
• Unable to complete self-administered questionnaires, or unable to read or converse in English