Video: New Insights Link Low HDL-Cholesterol and Elevated Triglycerides with Coronary Heart Disease and Microvascular Complications in Patients at Goal for LDL-C...( BARCELONA Spain Sep...),Health

BARCELONA, Spain, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and raised triglycerides, affecting millions of patients worldwide, are strongly linked to significantly increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) even in patients who achieve or surpass current low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/r3i/39757/

This has been demonstrated in new analyses of the landmark Prospective Cardiovascular Munster (PROCAM) and the REsiduAl risk Lipids and Standard Therapies (REALIST) surveys, the latter funded and conducted by the Residual Risk Reduction Initiative Foundation or R3i. These data have been presented today at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress.

The final objective of the R3i is to significantly reduce the incidence of both major macrovascular events and microvascular complications (e.g. in patients with type 2 diabetes or affected by the metabolic syndrome) beyond what is already achieved with current treatments.(1,2)

Earlier studies, largely conducted in patients treated with statins show that lowering LDL-C to currently recognized goals only reduces the relative risk of macrovascular disease by about 23 percent.(3)

"The residual vascular risk driven by the increasing epidemic of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes is not being adequately treated by clinicians," stated Professor Frank Sacks from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and Vice-president of R3i. "While LDL-C is appropriately the current target, we have taken LDL-C reduction to its therapeutic limits without abolishing CVD events. Therefore we urgently need new strategies to address o
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