In the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) guidelines, the emphasis of lipid-lowering therapy is placed on reaching target plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels in order to reduce the risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Although therapeutic lifestyle changes can have a positive effect on LDL-C levels, the ATP III recognizes th...

Dyslipidemia has been recognized as an important risk-factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. The current, available therapies of dyslipidemia, their effectiveness, costs, cost-effectiveness and healthcare implications are discussed. At the present time, the lipid-lowering therapies are dominated by statins. Despite a variety of assumptions regarding modeling cardiovascular diseas...

In the last decades, LDL apheresis was introduced as an extracorporeal treatment option for patients with homozygous or severe heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The prognosis of patients suffering from severe dyslipidemia, sometimes combined with elevated lipoprotein (a) levels, and coronary heart disease refractory to diet and lipid-lowering drugs is poor. For such patients, regular ...