WASHINGTON – U.S. health officials warned the public Friday about the risk of a rare type of muscle injury seen when the cholesterol drug simvastatin is combined with the anti-arrhythmia medicine amiodarone.

The Food and Drug Administration said it continued to receive reports of rhabdomyolysis, a type of muscle injury that can lead to kidney failure or death, despite a 2002 warning about combining the drugs.

Simvastatin is an ingredient in Merck & Co's Zocor and Abbott Laboratories Inc's Simcor, and is sold generically. It also is one of two components in Merck and Schering-Plough Corp's Vytorin.

Amiodarone is an ingredient in Wyeth's Cordarone and is also sold generically.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)