Modern statin therapy in clinical practice: The lower the better

Abstract

Lipid and lipoprotein disorders are well known risk factors for atherosclerosis and its complications. The level of atherogenic LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) is directly related to an increased risk of occurrence and progression of ischemic heart disease. Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that the use of statin therapy to decrease LDL-C can significantly reduce the incidence of mortality, major coronary events and the need for revascularization procedures in the different groups of patients. The findings of a large meta-analysis conducted by the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' (CTT) collaborators showed that every 1.0 mmol/l reduction of atherogenic LDL-C is associated with a 22% reduction in cardiovascular diseases mortality and morbidity. However, despite the impressive results of the benefits of statin therapy, the EUROASPIRE study showed that about 50% of patients with ischemic heart disease did not achieve target LDL-C levels. According to the new ESC/EAS Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidaemias in patients with a very high cardiovascular risk, treatment goal should be to decrease LDL-C below 1.8 mmol/l or ≥50% of initial values. In the majority of patients that can be achieved by statin therapy. For this reason an adequate choice of statins is of crucial importance, whereby the needed reduction in atherogenic LDL-C, after the identification of its target level based on the assessment of total cardiovascular risk, can be achieved.