Lowering serum cholesterol with statins has consistently shown benefits on cardiovascular outcomes. A 1 mmol/L reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol is associated with approximately one-third fewer coronary events and one-fifth fewer ischaemic strokes.1 However, despite these impressive results, there remains a substantial residual risk of cardiovascular (CV) events despite optimal statin therapy.2 From pooled analyses of randomised-controlled trials of statins, there is a clear relationship between the achieved level of LDL-cholesterol and the number of coronary heart disease (CHD) events. This observation applies to both primary and secondary prevention trials.3
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