Patients who suffer a first atherosclerotic cardiovascular event while taking statins are often far off of lipid targets.

Background And Aims: Despite considerable evidence that lipid-lowering therapies (LLTs) afford clinical benefit, the control of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is suboptimal, and available LLTs are underused, especially in patients at high and very high cardiovascular (CV) risk. This study assesses the real-world LDL-C target attainment rate in patients on LLT before experiencing a first major acute cardiovascular event (MACE).

Methods And Results: The HEARTBEAT was a retrospective, multicentre observational study.