Re-evaluating therapeutic target goals for statin-treated patients: time for revolutionary changes?

ver since Anitschkow’s pioneering experiments on the role f cholesterol in the causation of atherosclerotic plaques in abbits (2), this intriguing molecule has been at the heart of ebate and controversy (3). Initially, the total cholesterol evel was used as a measure of risk, then a distinction etween and -lipoproteins emerged. As the role of pecific lipoproteins became clear, attention focused on the holesterol content of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), hich constitutes the major cholesterol-carrying lipoprotein n serum. The National Cholesterol Education Program’s dult Treatment Program (ATP), first published in 1988,