Benefits of the MEDPED treatment support program for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia

BackgroundPatients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients often have difficultly achieving National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) goals. Herein we present an evaluation of a centrally located, nationwide treatment support program that remotely attempted to educate and guide FH patients by monitoring their serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and giving appropriate treatment recommendations through mail contact. All subjects were FH patients registered with the Make Early Diagnosis to Prevent Early Deaths (MEDPED) program.MethodsIn this descriptive evaluation, we compared self-reported lipid levels in 386 FH patients participating in our treatment support program with 295 non-participants who had responded to questionnaires. Participants were recruited into the treatment support program if they had not reached their LDL cholesterol goal after at least 1 year of follow-up and were unable to receive specialized lipid care due to location.ResultsParticipants who continued for a longer term in the treatment support program achieved greater total cholesterol reductions (14%) than the comparison group (7%, P = .004). Reductions in total and LDL cholesterol were highly correlated with more aggressive use of statin medications (P <.0001).ConclusionsThese results demonstrate the potential benefits and limitations of a centralized program operating remotely to encourage appropriate treatment of severe hypercholesterolemia.