Current approaches to the treatment of dyslipidemia: from scholarly disputes to the individual patient

Lipid metabolism, and especially increased plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), are positively correlated with the incidence and number of cardiovascular events - heart attacks and ischemic strokes. [1--7] Randomized trials of statins and a series of meta-analyses of statin trials - Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' (STT) Collaboration 2005, 2010, 2012 - demonstrated a close relationship between decrease in the "bad" cholesterol level on statin therapy and decrease in the number of cardiovascular (CV) complications. [8, 9] In the Russian Federation, despite advances in preventive cardiology in recent years, cardiovascular and total mortality rates remain high. Circulatory system diseases cause death of more than 1 million people in Russia annually; CS diseases account for more than 50% in the structure of total mortality. [5--7] Compared with other developed and developing countries, life expectancy in the Russian Federation, according to the WHO, remains low equalling an average of 66 years. Specifically in 2013, according to the WHO, average life expectancy of Russian people was low equalling an average of 66.05 in general, 59.1 years for men and 73 years for women. We are on the 129th place in the total list of countries, between Guyana and the Bahamas (Slide 1). One of the most challenging tasks in reducing CV mortality in this country is adequate monitoring of the key CV risk factors (diabetes, smoking, hypertension and dyslipidemia)