[Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors)]

Diabetic patients frequently show lipid abnormalities that include qualitative changes in lipid profile. Given the greatly increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia, most principal clinical guidelines recommend aggressively lowering lipid levels in such patients. In fact, several large-scale clinical intervention trials have successfully shown that lipid-lowering agents, particularly statins, could significantly reduce the CHD risk in diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia. According to our investigation on 9,000 Japanese diabetic patients, about a half had hyperlipidemia but only less than half of the hyperlipidemic patients received some lipid-lowering agents. Taken together, it should be concluded that more stringent and aggressive intervention should be recommended in the treatment of Japanese diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia.