A new study led by Lisandro D. Colantonio, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, revealed that many patients of chronic kidney disease (CKD) do not take statins, even after the recommendation of doctor.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology on November 13. It was sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Health and Human Service Cooperative Agreement. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Amgen Inc. also funded the study.

The authors of the study found that statins should be taken by all the patients suffering from CKD. Of the patients who were recommended to take statins, the half did not take cholesterol-lowering medications.

Normal level of cholesterol should be maintained by those who are at risk of heart disease and statins can lower the levels of high cholesterol. And can reduce the risk of heart attack thereby.

Doctors were recommended by the authors to make the use of existing guidelines as a means to tell their patients about the usage of statins.

As per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the disease of kidney and heart often go together. CKD could increase the risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol management guidelines were released by the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes Lipid Work Group in 2013.

There are two sets of these guidelines and there is a little difference between the two, though statins are recommended by both the guidelines for patients of chronic kidney disease or heart disease.

"These results indicate that either guideline can be used to inform the decision to initiate statin therapy for people with [chronic kidney disease] who are 50 to 79 years of age," Dr. Colantonio said in a press release.