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Managing residual risk in patients receiving statin therapy

Ian R Hamilton-Craig
Med J Aust 2010; 192 (7): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03554.x
Published online: 5 April 2010

Until the results of several statin trials are available, it is recommended that the current indications and usage of ezetimibe be continued

Patients receiving statin therapy to reduce total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels still have a residual risk of cardiovascular (CV) events. In most statin trials, CV events are reduced by about 30% compared with placebo, leaving about 70% residual risk of CV events that occur in spite of statin therapy. Factors that may contribute to residual risk are listed in Box 1.


  • School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD.



Competing interests:

Ian Hamilton-Craig has received financial support to attend and give presentations at scientific meetings from AstraZeneca, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Solvay, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and Abbott Australasia. He is a member of the Lipid Advisory Board of Merck Sharp & Dohme/Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca and Solvay, the Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Committee of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society, and the Council on Genetic Cardiovascular Diseases of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

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