NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For patients at high risk for coronary disease who do not sufficiently adjust their cholesterol levels with a moderate dose of a statin, increasing the statin dose may be more effective in meeting treatment targets than combining the statin with another lipid-lowering agent, Canadian investigators report.

Only about a third of all patients on statin therapy, and even fewer patients with established coronary heart disease, achieve target cholesterol levels recommended in professional guidelines, Dr. Mukul Sharma of the Canadian Stroke Network in Ottawa and associates comment in the Annals of Internal Medicine for September 1.

For a comparative effectiveness review commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to determine which treatment strategy led to the best clinical outcomes, the researchers analyzed data from 102 studies in high-risk adult patients. They compared combinations of statins and other agents