ABSTRACT

Introduction The last year has seen the publication of several trials which answer some of the out­ standing questions about statin therapy and extend its place in medical practice. The Heart Protection Study (HPS) included in last year’s Year in Dyslipidaemia is the largest randomized placebo-controlled trial ever undertaken and without resort to unplanned subanalyses it established that statin therapy was effective in preventing coronary heart disease (CHD), thromboembolic stroke, and the need for arterial surgery in primary and secondary prevention, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smokers, both men and women and in the elderly and young alike |1|. This year, the full results of the diabetic cohort in HPS have been published.