JCL Roundtable: Gender differences in reduction of CVD in response to lipid-lowering drugs

The Roundtable in this issue of the journal has to do with a very important topic that has generated much debate and confusion over the years. Do women and men need and receive the same type and intensity of drug therapy to appropriately reduce the incidence of major vascular events? Second, do women respond to lipid-lowering medications with similar changes in lipoprotein levels and with equivalent reduction in major cardiovascular clinical events? I am very pleased to have 3 experts in different aspects of this issue. Dr Rachel Mackey is a cardiovascular epidemiologist in the University of Pittsburgh who is now actively involved in analyzing large data sets from community-based observational studies. Dr Thomas Pearson has many years of cardiovascular experience in clinical trials and observational studies that go to the issues faced by physicians in practice. He is the current Executive Vice President for Research and Education at the University of Florida Health Science Center. Dr Carl Orringer is a professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine who has years of experience in teaching preventive cardiology.