LDL-cholesterol goal attainment under persistent lipid-lowering therapy in northeast China: Subgroup analysis of the dyslipidemia international study of China (DYSIS-China)

Lipid-lowering therapy with statins reduces the risk of cardiovascular events, but the efficacy of persistent treatment in a real-world setting may vary from regions. Routine lipid-lowering therapy in the region with a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease may lead to more failures of goal attainment. We therefore performed a study to observe different lipid-lowering strategies in northeast (NE) China with respect to low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) reduction and goal attainments. A cross-sectional study (DYSIS-China) was conducted in 2012, involving 25,317 patients from 122 centers across China who were diagnosed with hyperlipidemia and treated with lipid-lowering therapy for at least 3 months. Of these patients, 4559 (18.0%) were assigned to the NE group according to their residential zones. Patients in the NE group tended to be younger, female, overweight, and had more comorbidities and higher blood lipid levels than those in the non-NE group (P < .001). The goal attainment for LDL-C in NE was lower than non-NE (45.3% vs 65.1%, P < .001), and especially lower in high (NE vs non-NE, 38.5% vs 58.6%) and very high (NE vs non-NE, 22.6% vs 43.7%) risk patients. The proportion of high intensity statin was lower in NE than non-NE, and the proportion of combination therapy was similar (∼2%). However, the goal attainment did not increase after administering higher dosages of statins in 2 groups. Logistic regression analysis identified diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CBD), being female, body mass index (BMI) >24 kg/m(2), drinking alcohol, smoking, and being residence in NE China as independent predictors of LDL-C attainment. Despite having received persistent lipid-lowering treatments, the current situation of dyslipidemia patients in NE China is unsatisfactory. The main treatment gap might be related to the choice of statin and effective combination therapy and the control of comorbidities and obesity, especially for high-risk patients.