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More heart patients hitting their cholesterol targets

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

More people trying to lower their LDL cholesterol are reaching their targets, according to new research appearing in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The survey, called the Lipid Treatment Assessment Project 2, is an update of a similar survey done in the United States in 1996 and 1997. In the earlier survey, 38 percent of Americans in general and 18 percent of people with heart disease trying to lower cholesterol actually had their LDL cholesterol under control.

The new study, which looked at 9,955 people in nine countries over the course of 2006 and 2007, found that 86 percent of people at relatively low risk of heart problems, 74 percent at moderate risk, and 67 percent at high risk were successful at getting their cholesterol down to the recommended target levels.

The current target level of LDL cholesterol for healthy people is less than 160 mg/dL, for those with moderate risk it's less than 130 mg/dL and those at high risk have a target of less than 100 mg/dL.

An editorial accompanying the paper says the most likely reason for the better results is the increased effectiveness of modern cholesterol-lowering drugs. Cholesterol testing has also become easier and more available.