Comparison of lipid control in patients with coronary versus peripheral artery disease following the first vascular intervention

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Therefore, target low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level in patients with PAD is ≤70 mg/dl, similar to patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, despite their high cardiovascular risk, patients with PAD less frequently achieve LDL cholesterol goals compared to patients with CAD. We aimed to compare LDL cholesterol control in patients after first coronary or peripheral vascular intervention. Included were patients ≥18 years of age without a history of cardiovascular disease who underwent first coronary or peripheral vascular intervention from 2004 through 2010. Primary end points were percentage of patients who achieved the LDL cholesterol goal of <100 and <70 mg/dl. Of 9,138 patients available for analysis, 7,512 (82.2%) underwent first coronary revascularization and 1,626 (17.8%) underwent first peripheral revascularization. Patients after first coronary revascularization were treated more frequently with any statin and with highly potent statins. Furthermore, they more frequently achieved the LDL cholesterol goals compared to patients after first peripheral intervention. This was true for the LDL cholesterol goal of <100 mg/dl (65% and 46.7%, p <0.0001) and for the lower LDL cholesterol goal of <70 mg/dl (23.3% and 13.3%, p <0.0001). Differences in LDL cholesterol control between the 2 groups remained statistically significant after multivariate adjustment. In conclusion, lipid control in patients with PAD is poor and significantly inferior to that of patients with CAD even after the first vascular intervention.