Endocrine Abstracts

Drug therapies are effective for improving lipid profiles. However, a large proportion of patients and specifically high-risk patients appear unable to achieve the recommended goals for LDL-C level. Furthermore, the proportions of patients, who lack the targeted LDL-C goal, are inconsistent among different studies.

Objectives: To explore if application of different guidelines for the management of dyslipidemia can influence the proportion of LDL-C target level achievement in a population level.

Methods: To assess the attainment of LDL-C goal, data from a Canadian community-based (CCB) study (Clin Invest Med 2007 30 E63–E69) were evaluated against three guidelines: the 2003 Canadian guideline for management of dyslipidemia, the NCEP-APT guideline and AFSSAPS guideline. These result were also compared with goal attainment observed in other studies, including CALIPSO (Canada), L-TAP (USA), EUROASPIRE (Europe), OLYMPIC (Greece), REALITY-PHARMO (The Netherlands), BKL-Thales (France).

Results: Using the Canadian guideline, only 73% of patients in CCB study achieved the goal for LDL-C level. About 96% of low risk and 62% of high risk patients achieved the LDL-C goal. Similar results were obtained when data from the CALIPSO study were used. Conversely, the CCB study demonstrated a significantly different attainment of LDL-C targets compared with the studies from Europe and the United States that used the NCEP-APT guideline or AFSSAPS guideline to set the LDL-C target levels.

Conclusion: Several factors may contribute to the observed inter- country differences in goal attainment, including different patient populations, different clinical practice guidelines and different time frame when the results were obtained.