Standards of statin usage in Poland in high-risk patients: 3ST-POL study results

According to epidemiological studies, dyslipidaemia is the commonest risk factor of atherosclerosis in the Polish population. It is estimated that 18 million adult Poles are affected by dyslipidaemia.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of the statin therapy in high-risk Polish outpatients.

The 3ST-POL study involved 49,950 Polish outpatients. The enrolled patients met the following inclusion criteria: age between 40 and 85 years and a history of a minimum three months of statin therapy. A full lipid profile was screened in each patient; 72% of all subjects were high-risk patients.

Among the patients in the 3ST-POL study, women represented 53%, and the mean age was 59.5 ± 10.8 years. Patients were treated by: general practitioners (GPs) 78.95%; diabetologists 5.02%; and cardiologists 16.03%. The most frequently used statins were atorvastatin and simvastatin. The most common dose was 20 mg/24 h. In the high-risk population, the lowest recommended total cholesterol (TC) concentration was achieved in 3.7% of treated subjects, whereas 5.6% of patients attained LDL < 80 mg/dL (2.0 mmol/L). 9.5% of patients did not exceed the upper limit of normal values for TC (155-175 mg/dL; 4.0-4.5 mmol/L) and 12.6% of patients reached LDL between 80-100 mg/dL (2.0-2.5 mmol/L). Subjects under the cardiologists' and diabetologists' care more often reached the recommended TC concentration (TC < 175 mg/dL; TC < 4.5 mmol/dL) and the difference was statistically important.

This partial efficacy in dyslipidaemia control is not satisfactory.