Attainment of optional low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal of less than 70 mg/dl and impact on prognosis of very high risk stable coronary patients: a 3-year follow-up

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the proportion of very high-risk patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) who achieve the optional low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) target of < 70 mg/dl (1.8 mmol/liter), the factors that influence the success rate and the impact on their prognosis.

Research design and methods: We enrolled 1337 consecutive patients with stable CHD. Fasting lipids were determined and all cardiovascular events were recorded during a median follow-up of 33 months.

Results: The majority (86.5%) of patients were taking lipid-lowering medication (95.5% statins), but only 50.6% had LDL-C levels of < 100 mg/dl (2.6 mmol/liter). In total, 941 (70.4%) patients were considered very high risk and only 15.1% of them had LDL-C levels of < 70 mg/dl. Τhe use of intensive lipid-lowering medication was associated with 12-fold (95% CI 6.98 – 20.76; p < 0.001) higher possibility in achieving LDL-C levels of < 70 mg/dl. Attainment of LDL-C levels of < 70 mg/dl by patients at very high risk were independent predictors of all cardiovascular events (HR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.17 – 0.70; p = 0.003).

Conclusions: The vast majority of very high-risk patients do not achieve the optional LDL-C goal; this is mainly due to the suboptimal uptitration of statin dose and is translated into loss of clinical benefits.

Keywords::

• LDL cholesterol target
• stable coronary heart disease
• statins
• very high-risk patients