Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): The 2018 AHA/ACC Multisociety Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol recommends to target an LDL-C <70mg/dL in very high risk ASCVD patients. If the patient is on maximally tolerated statin therapy and LDL-C remained >70mg/dL, addition of ezetimibe was recommended. If LDL continued to be elevated, the addition of PCSK9 inhibitor was discussed. In 2019, the European Atherosclerosis Society recommended lowering the target LDL-C goal to <55mg/dL in patients with very high ASCVD risk. This is based on prior studies demonstrating dose-dependent reduction in ASCVD with LDL-C reduction. The purpose of this study is to identify individuals at very high ASCVD risk and determine if they are on optimal medical therapy to achieve LDL <55mg/dL with the intention to improve atheroscloertic cardiovascular risk management in primary care residency clinics.

A review of electronic medical records from a primary care residency clinic was performed. Patients with hyperlipidemia and prior ASCVD event were identified. Additional data including lipid panel and current medical management were collected. Patients were stratified into very high risk and not very high risk groups according to AHA classification and analyzed.

A total of 1,727 patients were found to have hyperlipidemia and a prior ASCVD event. The not very high risk group had an average age of 51 years with 54% (n=40) females and 45.9% (n=34) males. The very high risk group contained 95.7% (n=1,653) patients. The average age in the very high risk group was 68 years with 53.2% (n=879) of patients being female and 46.8% (n=774) being males. Of those patients, 73.6% (n=1,216) had an LDL ≥ 55 mg/dL. In these patients, 563 were on high intensity statin, 163 on moderate intensity statin and 15 on low intensity statin. There were 475 patients not on any statin. Of those on statin therapy, 66 were on ezetimibe alone and 10 were on both ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors.

Over 95% of patients with a prior ASCVD event were identified as being very high risk. Our data demonstrates that 3 in 4 patients were not on optimal medical therapy based on a stricter LDL goal. There was poor escalation of medical therapy as not all patients were on high intensity statin and only 10% of patients were on ezetimibe while even fewer patients were on additional PCSK9 inhibitor therapy. This study highlights the importance of risk stratification and vigilance in optimizing medical therapy.