Unique New Initiative by World-Recognized Specialists in Heart Disease and Diabetes to Reduce Residual Vascular Risk Laun...( NEW ORLEANS and LOS ANGELES Novem...)

NEW ORLEANS and LOS ANGELES, November 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- Current Treatment Fails to Abolish Majority of Vascular Risk

- Residual Risk Reduction Initiative (R3i) Calls for Action to Reduce the Lipid-Related Residual Vascular Risk Unaddressed by Current Standards of Care in Millions of Patients With Heart Disease and Diabetes

Internationally recognized specialists from North America, Europe, Asia and Japan have come together today to launch the Residual Risk Reduction initiative (R3i) - a unique global program to evaluate and reduce the excess risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, kidney disease, loss of vision and non-traumatic limb amputation which exists in many patients with heart disease and diabetes despite optimal, currently available care.

The R3i, a worldwide, academic, multidisciplinary non-profit organization, aims to successfully address the excessively high risk of macro- and microvascular complications in patients with atherogenic dyslipidemia, characterized by elevated triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and unaddressed by current standards of care. This lipid abnormality is typical in patients with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome and common in patients with established cardiovascular disease.

The President of the R3i, Professor Jean-Charles Fruchart of the University of Lille, France said: "We now have unequivocal evidence from numerous studies showing that greater reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar alone will have little, if any, additional impact on residual vascular risk. Therefore, we urgently need new strategies to address other modifiable risk factors such as atherogenic dyslipidemia, a strong contributor to residual vascular risk in millions of patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

The R3i will address this major public health problem. In its manifesto published today in Diabetes & Vascular
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