Statins and Lupus: Effects of Statins on Clinical Lupus Parameters, Serological Markers and Toll-like Receptors

Atorvastin (Lipitor) is a commonly used drug approved by the FDA for treatment of dyslipidemias. It is a relatively safe drug to use with periodic monitoring.

Eligibility critera:

- age 18-60, females, as a marjority of lupus patients are female

- at least 4 ACR (American College of Rheumatology) criteria of SLE(Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)

- Moderate to Severe disease activity using approved SLEDAI(Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index)

- LDL cholesterol 100-190mg/dl

Exclusion criteria:

- Pregnancy, and or lactating or wants to get pregnant

- Unable to take atorvastatin due to allergy, liver disease, elevated liver functions, myositis, or elvated CPK(creatine phosphakinase)

- already on lipid lowering therapy

- already on amiodarone, clarithromycin, cyclosporin, erythromycin, itraconazole, ketoconazole, nefazodone, verapamil, protease inhibitors, niacin, digoxin,k cholestyramine, colestipol

- has a dianosis of Myositis. Our goal is to colledt preliminary data to see if there is a trend for the efficacy of atorvastatin in ameliorating SLE disease activity and to evaluate TLRs(Toll-like receptor) in SLE patients. A p value of <0.05 will be considered statistically significant. Our baseline and at subsequent visits, we will have 80% power to detect a minimum of 34%-39% difference for most of the continous variables measured at different intervals.