Are high triglycerides associated with increased cardiovascular events and medical costs in statin-treated patients with high residual cardiovascular risk?
In statin-treated patients with high cardiovascular risk, high triglycerides are associated with significantly worse cardiovascular outcomes and higher healthcare costs compared to those with well-managed triglycerides.
Background The American Heart Association recognizes high triglycerides as a cardiovascular risk factor. Methods and Results This retrospective observational administrative claims analysis (Optum Research Database) included statin-treated patients ≥45 years old with diabetes mellitus and/or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, triglycerides 2.26 to 5.64 mmol/L, and a propensity-matched comparator cohort with triglycerides 1.04 mmol/L. In the high-triglycerides cohort versus comparators (both n=10 990, 49% women), mean age was 61.7 versus 62.2 years and follow-up was 41.3 versus 42.1 months, respectively. Multivariate analysis of composite major cardiovascular events demonstrated significantly increased risk in the high-triglycerides (n=13 411 patients) versus comparator (n=32 506 patients) cohorts (hazard ratio HR , 1.35; 95% confidence interval CI , 1.225-1.485; P1.04 mmol/L.
Tóth et al. (2018) studied this question.