title: Insufficient statin therapy in coronary heart disease is related to the time of the last coronary angiography.
abstract: Transfer of current treatment guidelines for high blood cholesterol into clinical practice, especially under timely consideration of the last coronary angiography (CA), remains unclear. We therefore tested the efficiency of statin treatment in 209 patients with coronary heart disease and allocated them according to the time of the last CA in 2 groups (<or= />12 months). Median low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) of the study population was 117 mg/dL. Whereas 81% of the patients with CA <or= 12 months received statins, application rate dropped to 67% in patients with angiograms >12 months (P<0.05). Comparison of the median ratio of the applied statin dose to its equivalent dose demonstrated a higher therapy intensity in patients with recent CA (1.0 vs. 0.5; P < 0.05). Therefore, patients with CA <or= 12 months had lower median LDL-C levels (102 vs. 121 mg/dL; P<0.001) and were more likely to have LDL-C levels <100 mg/dL (40% vs. 19%; P<0.01). The results of our study show that in patients with coronary heart disease, application and dose rates of statins are inversely related to the time of the last CA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Internal Medicine III, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. mark.rosenberg@uk-sh.de
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urbansky
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haass
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood*; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010349:Patient Compliance; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors