High cholesterol levels predict higher survival rates in patients with acute coronary syndromes

This study was published in Clinical Cardiology 2009 Sep;32(9):E22-8

 

Study title and authors:

Hypercholesterolemia paradox in relation to mortality in acute coronary syndrome.

Wang TY, Newby LK, Chen AY, Mulgund J, Roe MT, Sonel AF, Bhatt DL, DeLong ER, Ohman EM, Gibler WB, Peterson ED.

Division of Cardiology, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA. wang0085@mc.duke.edu

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19645040

This study investigated the association of cholesterol levels with in-hospital death rates in patients with acute coronary syndromes. (Acute coronary syndromes is an umbrella term for situations where the blood supplied to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked). The study included 84,429 patients with acute coronary syndromes and examined data regarding patients with (i) a history of existing high cholesterol and (ii) newly in-hospital diagnosed high cholesterol.

Patients were defined as the following:
(i) A history of existing high cholesterol was defined as more than 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L) or treatment with cholesterol lowering drugs.
(ii) Newly in-hospital diagnosed high cholesterol was defined as low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels more than 100 mg/dL (2.6 mmol/L).

The study found:
(a) Patients with a history of existing high cholesterol had a 29% reduced death death rate compared to patients with a history of existing low cholesterol.
(b) Patients with no history of existing high cholesterol, but with newly in-hospital diagnosed high LDL cholesterol had a 14% reduced death death rate compared to patients with normal LDL cholesterol.

The data from the study reveals that high cholesterol levels predict higher survival rates in patients with acute coronary syndromes.