Keeping an eye on cardiovascular risk. A practical, case-study approach to assessment in office practice.

Primary care physicians typically encounter patients who are not at obvious risk for CAD but who nonetheless need and can benefit from lipid-lowering therapy. Applying algorithms or scoring systems can be helpful in estimating an individual patient's risk, but the basic tools available in everyday clinical practice can be used to alert physicians to elevated CAD risk in their patients. Those patients whose LDL-C level is at or above 220 mg/dL (5.69 mmol/L) should routinely and deservedly get clinical attention, but they account for only 2.5% to 5% of the population. Those with an "average" LDL-C level number in the millions, and from this patient pool come the coronary events that fill clinics and hospitals. Aggressive treatment approaches are required to meet NCEP objectives, and every indication suggests that these goals are just the minimum. The third report of the NCEP Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III) has broadened the indications for drug therapy, reclarifying diabetes and peripheral vascular or cardiovascular disease equivalents and using a global evaluation concept, which will identify 30 million Americans in need of drug treatment. The statins safely and effectively lower LDL-C levels, which is the basis for instituting drug therapy, according to NCEP guidelines. Using these drugs also raises HDL-C levels, which is somewhat protective, and decreases triglyceride levels. The efficacy of statin therapy in both primary and secondary prevention of CAD is now well established. If used more often when dietary therapy fails, which happens quite often, and in doses sufficient to work effectively, statins have the power to turn the corner on the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic coronary disease in the United States.