Residual Risk Reduction Initiative (R3i) Calls for Action to Reduce the Lipid-Related Residual Vascular Risk Unaddressed by Current Standards of Care in Millions of Patients With Heart Disease and Diabetes.
Internationally recognized specialists from North America, Europe, Asia and Japan have come together today to launch the Residual Risk Reduction initiative (R3i) - a unique global program to evaluate and reduce the excess risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, kidney disease, loss of vision and non-traumatic limb amputation which exists in many patients with heart disease and diabetes despite optimal, currently available care.
The R3i, a worldwide, academic, multidisciplinary non-profit organization, aims to successfully address the excessively high risk of macro- and microvascular complications in patients with atherogenic dyslipidemia, characterized by elevated triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and unaddressed by current standards of care. This lipid abnormality is typical in patients with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome and common in patients with established cardiovascular disease.
The President of the R3i, Professor Jean-Charles Fruchart of the University of Lille, France said: "We now have unequivocal evidence from numerous studies showing that greater reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar alone will have little, if any, additional impact on residual vascular risk. Therefore, we urgently need new strategies to address other modifiable risk factors such as atherogenic dyslipidemia, a strong contributor to residual vascular risk in millions of patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
The R3i will address this major public health problem. In its manifesto published today in Diabetes & Vascular Disease Research (Diabetes Vasc Dis Res 2008;5:319-35) and in a supplement to the American Journal of Cardiology (Am J Cardiol 2008:102:Supplement 10A ), the R3i calls for:
- Original research to quantify the full extent of residual vascular risk in patients with atherogenic dyslipidemia and to identify new targets for interventions.
- Educational programs to create awareness of residual vascular risk and to encourage healthcare professionals, particularly Primary Care Physicians (PCPs), to translate available research findings into improved treatment strategies.
- Advocacy to ensure that the issue of residual vascular risk associated with atherogenic dyslipidemia is given appropriate priority in national and international guidelines.
"Our overall goal must be to provide knowledge and understanding to allow physicians to get closer to normalizing residual vascular risk in patients with heart disease and/or diabetes," Frank Sacks, Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and Vice-president of R3i, said. "We hope that the original research conducted under the auspices of R3i and the widespread communication of current knowledge and new data will lead to significant improvements in the reduction of risk beyond the levels we achieve now. Despite significant advances in reducing vascular risk in the last 20 years, we have only just begun to address this issue. We invite our colleagues to join us in addressing this important challenge."