Coronary heart disease and dyslipidemia: a cross-sectional evaluation of prevalence, current treatment, and clinical control in a large cohort of Spanish high-risk patients: the PRINCEPS study.

The authors assessed a large cohort of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or at high risk for developing CHD in terms of lipid profile, lipid-lowering treatment, and attainment of National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) target low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. The investigation was a cross-sectional study involving Spanish outpatients treated in primary or secondary care facilities. From a total of 26,598 attending patients, 12,128 with CHD or CHD risk equivalents were recruited by 1875 physicians; 49% had CHD and 69% had multiple risk factors. Only 25% of patients attained LDL-C values <100 mg/dL, 76.6% patients received lipid-lowering therapy (statins in 95.4% of cases), and 54% of physicians considered that a treatment change was required (the most frequent choice was the addition of ezetimibe to current statin therapy). In this large cohort of high-risk coronary patients, only 25% attained a target LDL-C of <100 mg/dL. These results highlight a need for improved patient care and physician awareness/training. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.