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Clinical trials of lipid-altering drugs for the prevention of coronary heart disease are uncommon. The low rate of coronary events, especially in primary-prevention studies, and the chronic course of atherosclerosis require both large sample sizes, measured in the thousands, and years of follow-up. Thus, such studies are ambitious and costly undertakings and tests of endurance. Accordingly, the findings of the Helsinki Heart Study1 provide an important addition to the literature, especially at a time when lowering cholesterol in high-risk persons with hypercholesterolemia is being widely advocated in the United States2 , 3 and Europe.4 The Helsinki Heart Study withstands scrutiny of the . . .
Basil M. Rifkind (Thu,) studied this question.