Baseline cholesterol level and magnitude of coronary event reduction in diabetic patients with myocardial infarction.

Coronary Event Reduction in Diabetic Patients With Myocardial Infarction To the Editor: It would be very helpful if we were able to see further analysis of the study by Goldberg et al.1 The analysis presented was for the group as a whole, which included significant variations in baseline cholesterol levels. It would be helpful if we could see an analysis similar to that performed in the LIPID study2 looking at the outcome in relation to differences in the baseline cholesterol level. Although I suspect the number of end points may affect the statistical analysis, clinicians should be able to see the raw data and draw their own conclusions. The LIPID study demonstrated statistical benefit in treating all levels of cholesterol, but there appeared to be significant differences in the numbers needed to treat, and this would have a significant impact on health economics.