Author Interviews, General Medicine, Heart Disease, Statins / 14.05.2014
Statins Underutilized By Many Patients With Cardiovascular Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Michael Johansen, MD, MS
Department of Family Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43201
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Johansen: We found a surprisingly low number of people with coronary artery disease and diabetes (over age 40) were not reporting statin use. Of the people with coronary artery disease only 58% reported statin use while 52% of people with diabetes reported use. In addition, a reported diagnosis of hyperlipidemia was strongly correlated with statin use. In fact, individuals with hyperlipidemia and no coronary artery disease were more apt to be on a statin than people with coronary artery disease and no hyperlipidemia. Other high-risk conditions that have recently been included in the ACC/AHA high risk category were weakly or not associated with statin use including stroke and peripheral arterial disease.
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