THURSDAY, Dec. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Although statin therapy is effective at lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, it has no effect on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. Nearly 50 percent of new statin users may require additional therapy to achieve optimal lipid levels, according to a study in the Dec. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Gregory A. Nichols, Ph.D., of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and colleagues studied 5,158 patients who had full lipid panels six months before and nine to 15 months after the initiation of dyslipidemia medication, primarily statins.

Although therapy decreased the proportion of patients not at LDL cholesterol goals from77 to 22 percent and the proportion with high triglyceride levels from 34 to 20 percent, the researchers found that it did not decrease the 49 percent proportion with lower than normal levels of HDL cholesterol in the aggregate and high-risk subgroups. They also found that 29 percent of high-risk patients still had multiple lipid abnormalities despite therapy.

"As shown in the present study, which closely modeled real-time community-based practice patterns, the magnitude of residual lipid abnormalities, particularly low HDL cholesterol, is substantial despite the use of statins and indicates the need to consider combination therapy involving a statin plus either niacin or fibrates," state the authors of an accompanying editorial.

The study was funded by Merck & Company Inc.; two authors reported financial relationships with the company.

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