This Article Free upon publication Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 120/1/3    most recent CIRCULATIONAHA.109.871913v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Gotto, A. M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gotto, A. M., Jr Related Collections Compliance/Adherence Risk Factors Related Article

(Circulation. 2009;120:3-5.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Improving Lipid Goal Attainment

Is It Enough?

Antonio M. Gotto, Jr, MD, DPhil

From the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY.

Correspondence to Dr Antonio M. Gotto, Jr, MD, DPhil, c/o Jennifer Moon, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1305 York Ave, Y-806, New York, NY 10021. E-mail jem2015@med.cornell.edu

Key Words: Editorials • lipids • cholesterol

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Lowering elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a surefire way to reduce cardiovascular risk. On the basis of a wealth of clinical trial evidence, guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) have established progressively lower LDL-C targets, with the most recent iteration recommending an optional treatment goal of <70 mg/dL for very-high-risk patients.¹ Increased attention has focused on addressing global cardiovascular risk, although LDL-C remains the primary target of lipid-lowering therapy.

Article see p 28

In this issue of Circulation, Waters et al² present results from the Lipid Treatment Assessment Project (L-TAP) 2, a survey to determine the percentage of dyslipidemic patients receiving lipid-lowering therapy (which includes diet and exercise) and also achieving their LDL-C goals. The first L-TAP survey was conducted in 1996 to 1997 in the United States with approximately 5000 patients.³ L-TAP 2 assessed nearly twice as many patients in 9 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Taiwan, and Korea, in 2006 to 2007. The overall LDL-C goal achievement rate in L-TAP 2 was 73%, as compared with 38% in the original L-TAP. As in the last survey, low-risk patients were the most likely to attain their LDL-C goals (86%), whereas high-risk patients experienced more difficulty in reaching their correspondingly lower targets (67%). In the United States, only 35% of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and at least 2 risk factors attained the optional LDL-C goal of <70 mg/dL. Success rates ranged from . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Lipid Treatment Assessment Project 2: A Multinational Survey to Evaluate the Proportion of Patients Achieving Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Goals

David D. Waters, Carlos Brotons, Cheng-Wen Chiang, Jean Ferrières, JoAnne Foody, J. Wouter Jukema, Raul D. Santos, Juan Verdejo, Michael Messig, Ruth McPherson, Ki-Bae Seung, Lisa Tarasenko for the Lipid Treatment Assessment Project 2 Investigators
Circulation 2009 120: 28-34. [Abstract] [Full Text]