Contemporary management of dyslipidemia in high-risk patients: targets still not met.

Purpose: Our objective was to evaluate treatment patterns and the attainment of current National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)-recommended lipid targets in unselected high-risk ambulatory patients.

Methods: Between December 2001 and December 2004, the prospective Vascular Protection and Guidelines Oriented Approach to Lipid Lowering Registries recruited 8056 outpatients with diabetes, established cardiovascular disease (CVD), or both, who had a complete lipid profile measured within 6 months before enrollment. The primary outcome measure was treatment success, defined as the achievement of LDL-cholesterol<2.