Identifying all suspects: case studies

Case presentations are one of the most instructive formats for learning. They allow the healthcare practitioner to identify and discuss patients who are at risk for a disease and then discuss appropriate therapy. Two patients who have dyslipidemia and are at risk for a coronary event are described here, along with treatment goals and options, audience responses, and discussions of appropriate therapy choices. Both patients require aggressive lipid management. One has had an angioplasty with placement of a stent. His case is an example of a patient at risk for a secondary coronary event; we refer to these cases as secondary-prevention patients. The other patient has high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes; her risk for a future coronary event based on Framingham risk data is greater than 20% in 10 years and therefore her risk for a future coronary event is equal to someone with established coronary heart disease (CHD). Her case is an example of what we refer to as a primary-prevention patient at high risk. Several large-scale primary- and secondary-prevention trials have demonstrated that aggressive lipid management can reduce the risk of future coronary events. In this supplement, we review some of those trials, the new guidelines, the concept of CHD-equivalent risk, and we will discuss the Framingham risk scoring system to predict the 10-year risk of coronary events in individual patients.