Management of LDL-cholesterol levels in patients with Diabetes Mellitus in Cardiology Practice: Real-life evidence of Under-treatment from the EPHESUS registry

Abstract

Background and aims: Effective treatment of high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels has been shown to improve cardiovascular outcomes of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Herein, we aimed to provide insight to the real-life management of patients with DM in terms of LDL-C goal attainment and adherence to lipid management recommendations. Our objective was also to reveal the reasons of poor LDL-C goal attainment by assessing the perceptions of both physicians and patients.

Methods: We compared the diabetic and non-diabetic patients from the database of a nationwide registry conducted in cardiology outpatient clinics with regard to the demographic characteristics, educational status, comorbidities, medications, laboratory parameters and LDL-C goal attainment. Also, both the patients and attending physicians were surveyed to analyse perceptions and awareness of hypercholesterolemia.

Results: Of the 1868 consecutively enrolled patients, 873 (47%) had DM. Proportion of patients on statins was significantly lower in patients with DM (67.8% vs 55.3%; P < .001). The proportion of patients who attained LDL-C targets were lower among the diabetic patients (17.8% vs 15%; P = .06). The most common causes of the discontinuation of statin therapy were negative media coverage about statins (32.1%), and recommendations of physicians to stop the lipid lowering therapy (29.6%). Analysis of the physician survey revealed that the physicians could determine the off-target patients accurately (negative predictive value 98.4%) while the positive predictive value (48.8%) was low. The reasons for not attaining the LDL-C goals in diabetic patients were not prescription of statins (38%) and inadequate (eg low-dose, non-adherent) statin (28.3%) dosages.

Conclusions: In real-life clinical cardiology practice, diabetic patients are far below the recommended LDL-C treatment goals. High-intensity statin treatment in diabetic population is still avoided because of the concerns about polypharmacy and drug interactions. Also, the inertia of physicians and even cardiologists is probably a major cause of refraining of prescription of optimal statin dosages.