Secular trends in lipids after AMI Table 1 Baseline characteristics for 781 patients, 607 (78%) men and 174 (22%) women, with a ﬁrst myocardial infarction 1994–19961 1997–19992 2000–20023 Age, n, mean (SD) BMI, mean (SD) BMI 25–29.9% (n) BMI 30% (n) Diabetes % (n) Hypertension % (n) Smoking % (n) At follow-up Smoking % (n) Serum cholesterol mmol/l, mean (SD) Serum triglycerides mmol/l, mean (SD) Lipid lowering medication % (n) Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total 54.1 (8.32) 55.9 (7.07) 54.5 (8.11) 27.7 (3.70) 27.5 (4.20) 27.6 (3.80) 55 (120) 38 (20) 51 (140) 24 (52) 30 (16) 25 (68) 21 (48) 19 (10) 21 (58) 24 (55) 44 (24) 29 (79) 60 (134) 59 (32) 60 (166) 29 (66) 30 (16) 29 (82) 6.18 (1.29) 6.11 (1.26) 6.16 (1.28) 2.61 (1.91) 2.24 (1.75) 2.54 (1.88) 18 (41) 24 (13) 19 (54) Notes: 11994–1996 225 men and 54 women. 21997–1999 177 men and 55 women. 32000–2002 205 men and 65 women. More women than men had a previous diagnosis of hyper- tension (43% and 25% in women and men, respectively). More than half of the women and two thirds of the men were overweight or obese. Lipid-lowering drugs and lipid levels The proportion treated with lipid-lowering drugs increased substantially during the investigated period in both genders (Figure 1). In 1994, 10% of all men and 23% of all women were treated with lipid-lowering drugs. In 2002, the pro- portion of patients treated with lipid-lowering drugs had increased to approximately 90% in both men and women. The linear trend over the period was signiﬁcant in both men and women (p 0.0001). In 1994, the mean total serum cholesterol was 6.53 (SD 1.27) and 6.32 mmol/l (SD 1.34) Vascular Health and Risk Management 2007:3(6) 53.3 (6.98) 54.9 (7.80) 53.7 (7.20) 28.3 (3.56) 29.0 (6.45) 28.4 (4.41) 52 (92) 40 (22) 49 (114) 27 (47) 33 (18) 28 (65) 12 (21) 18 (10) 13 (31) 26 (46) 42 (23) 30 (69) 57 (100) 62 (34) 58 (134) 22 (39) 33 (18) 25 (57) 5.52 (1.12) 5.56 (1.24) 5.53 (1.15) 2.34 (1.40) 1.97 (1.04) 2.25 (1.32) 46 (81) 40 (22) 44 (103) 54.4 (7.43) 56.1 (7.09) 54.8 (7.40) 27.5 (3.96) 27.8 (4.34) 27.6 (4.05) 53 (104) 35 (22) 48 (126) 22 (43) 33 (21) 25 (64) 21 (42) 23 (15) 21 (57) 25 (52) 42 (27) 29 (79) 53 (108) 55 (36) 53 (144) 21 (43) 20 (13) 21 (56) 4.58 (1.14) 4.97 (1.28) 4.68 (1.18) 1.82 (0.97) 1.82 (1.02) 1.82 (1.00) 73 (151) 86 (56) 77 (207) in men and women, respectively. During the study period, the mean serum cholesterol levels decreased steadily and, in 2002, the mean serum cholesterol in men and women, respectively, was 4.31 (SD 1.16) and 5.13 mmol/l (SD 1.47) (Figure 2). The linear trend was signiﬁcant for both genders (p 0.0001). Mean serum triglycerides also decreased during the years 1994 to 2002. In 1994, the mean serum triglyceride levels were 2.55 mmol/l (SD 1.58) in men and 2.16 mmol/l (SD 1.11) in women, and in 2002 1.72 mmol/l (SD 0.81) and 1.77 mmol/l (SD 1.13) in men and women, respectively (Figure 3) (p for linear trend over time was 0.0001 in men and 0.05 in women). In 2002, 65% of the men and 50% of the women had total serum cholesterol levels 5.0 mmol/l. If target levels for serum total cholesterol instead were deﬁned as 4.5 mmmol/l), 1047 Total 54.0 (7.65) 55.7 (7.29) 54.3 (7.60) 27.8 (3.76) 28.1 (5.09) 27.9 (4.09) 53 (316) 37 (64) 50 (380) 24 (142) 32 (55) 26 (197) 18 (111) 20 (35) 19 (146) 25 (153) 43 (74) 29 (227) 56 (342) 59 (102) 57 (444) 24 (148) 27 (47) 25 (195) 5.46 (1.36) 5.51 (1.34) 5.47 (1.36) 2.27 (1.53) 2.00 (1.30) 2.20 (1.49) 45 (273) 52 (91) 47 (364)