[Summary – Chronic kidney disease (CKD), which affects 10-14% of the population, dramatically increases the incidence and severity of cardiovascular (CV) disease, leading to death in the majority of patients before kidney replacement therapy. The current CV risk scorecards in CKD significantly underestimate the real risk and are therefore not applicable. For CV risk assessment it is recommended to use the combined GFR/proteinuria table also, which is used for CKD classification, was also adopted by the Hungarian CV Consensus Conference last year. The benefit of cholesterol- lowering treatment has also been demonstrated in CKD, and a 1 mmol/l reduction in LDL-c, as in the general population, reduces the incidence of major CV events by 20%. Recent clinical trials have clearly indicated that the lower the LDL-c values achieved, the lower the risk of future CV events, and therefore the new recommendations have tightened the LDL-c values to be achieved. ]

[Population based studies have proven that serum level of uric acid is a cardiovascular risk factor. Uric acid is produced in the human body as a result of the degradation of endogenous and exogenous purin nucleotids. It is eliminated mainly by the kidneys and in a small amount through the gastrointestinal tract. Serum uric acid can be decreased by some medical therapies. It has been demonstrated that atorvastatin treatment can decrease significantly uric acid level in patients with hyperlipidemia. Other statins do not seem to have such an effect. The uric acid lowering effect of atorvastatin is dose-dependent, and it most likely acts by increasing the renal elimination. The cholesterol, trgiglycerid and uric acid lowering effect of atorvastatin may have an important role in decreasing cardiovascular risk.]

[Controlled clinical studies on statins have produced evidence that the aggressive lowering of LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) level reduces the mortality rate of ischaemic heart disease. About 40% of treated patients achieve the cholesterol target level. The observance of medication instructions on a daily basis (compliance) and willingness for long-term taking of the drug (persistence) are crucially important to avoid severe complications. In the long term, patients take only about 50% of their medicines according to the instructions. As a result of the generally poor compliance and persistence in taking the medications, the decrease in morbidity and mortality observed in clinical studies do not occur under real-life conditions. Patients with poor compliance (<80%) will experience only a minimal health benefit and the cost-effectiveness of the therapy will markedly decrease. For patients with poor persistence who discontinue their treatment before benefits at the clinical endpoints could manifest, the resources invested into the therapy will be lost. Both compliance and persistence deteriorate as the number of concurrently taken medicines increases. Since less than 50% of the programmes aimed at improving patient co-operation are successful, therapeutic decisions should preferably be made by taking into consideration the expected compliance/persistence already at the time of choosing the medication. By widening the use of fixed-dose combination therapies, the efficiency of treatment can substantially be increased in patients who concurrently take several medicines and require aggressive lowering of blood pressure or LDL-C level.]

[The process of atherosclerosis nowadays plays an important role in the health care not just as a major cause of the most common cardiovascular diseases which lead to death, but also as a major factor in the loss of age-related elasticity in the blood vessels. Over the past two decades, large studies have shown that the treatment of high cholesterol levels can reduce the frequency of cardiovascular events and death and have confirmed the ability to reduce the already existing atherosclerotic plaque, which is almost unique in pharmacotherapy. Using lipid lowering therapy, if we do it properly, we can not only prevent vascular events, but can also cure atherosclerosis. Currently there are three drug groups (statins, ezetimibe and PCSK9- inhibitors), which have complete evidence that their use can reduce the number of cardiovascular events and plaque regression can be achieved. Despite many convincing clinical trials, lipid-lowering therapy is on the cardiovascular prevention palette in the just tolerated or forced applied category. In order to take advantage of its potentials at an appropriate level, as doctors, we have to approach to it by considering its importance. We should communicate to our patients that it’s about a life-long treatment, which not only can reduce the possibility of cardiovascular events, but also can slow down the aging process of the arteries. ]

[Hypertension is the leading “silent killer” accounting for 10 million deaths worldwide. It frequently occures together with other metabolic risk factors, including type-2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia augmenting the global cardiovascular risk of patients. Their treatment and reaching target blood pressure means a real challenge for practising physicians. According to the recent hypertension guidelines RAAS-inhibitors are the first choice agents which can be excellently combined with diuretics. RAAS-inhibitor based therapy frequently needs to be completed with Ca-antagonist to which statin should be added in the presence of metabolic risk factors. The benefits of amlodipin/atorvastatin fixed combination are multiple: both agents are capable to inhibit the progression of atherosclerosis and to reach blood pressure and LDL target values. In addition the well-known poor statin-adherence can be improved with fixed combination which can contribute to the reduction of risk of these high-risk subjects. ]