Adults With Coronary Artery Disease Not Meeting Cholesterol Targets

Three in four do not meet American guideline recommendations

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Most adults with coronary artery disease (CAD) do not meet low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets, according to a research letter published in the July 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Rahul Aggarwal, M.D., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (January 2015 to March 2020) to assess lipid control among 25,531 U.S. adults (≥20 years) with reported CAD.

The researchers found that among adults with reported CAD, 67.9 percent were receiving statin therapy and 6.4 percent were receiving ezetimibe. Age-adjusted mean LDL-C was 94.4 mg/dL, with 73.5 percent of participants having an LDL-C level ≥70 mg/dL. Among adults with reported CAD receiving statin therapy, 4.2 percent also reported receiving ezetimibe. The age-adjusted mean LDL-C level among adults with CAD receiving statin therapy was 82.2 mg/dL, with 65.2 percent having an LDL-C level ≥70 mg/dL. Among participants reporting CAD but not receiving statin therapy, 10.9 percent were receiving ezetimibe. The age-adjusted mean LDL-C level was 120.4 mg/dL, with 91.0 percent having an LDL-C level ≥70 mg/dL.

“Achievement of guideline-directed targets for LDL-C among adults with reported CAD was low, with almost three in four participants not meeting American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guideline targets and nine in 10 not meeting European Society of Cardiology guideline targets,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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