From the NELA President: Lipid Spin: A Collaborative Effort

It is my great honor to serve as President of the Northeast Lipid Association (NELA). One of the responsibilities of the President is to choose the topics and invite the authors for Lipid Spin. Accordingly, this edition of Lipid Spin was developed with my suggestions and direct input. I must say that the task, though daunting at first, was made a true labor of love with the help of all the great chapter members who eagerly participated and with the constant support of the editors, Jamie Underberg, MD and Robert Wild, MD, PhD. Most importantly I want to thank Megan Seery from the NLA staff who was an absolute delight to work with from start to finish.

The theme for this Lipid Spin is "Controversies in Clinical Lipidology." The daily practice of Clinical Lipidology once seemed rather straightforward. If the LDL was high, lower it. If the triglycerides were high, lower them. If the HDL was low, raise it. However, clinical trials have challenged the simplicity of these assumptions by teaching us that nature frequently confounds the best laid plans of man. Thus, we now understand that it matters how you lower LDL. Likewise, although lowering triglycerides is beneficial, our standard therapies may not produce a mortality benefit. Perhaps most disappointing is the realization that raising HDL is not clearly protective. We are all familiar with the controversy surrounding CETP inhibition with torcetrapib and now dalcetrapib. We seek to explain why AIM-HIGH did not produce the results we anticipated. Now we must account for the findings of a large Mendelian randomization study published a few months ago in Lancet that showed no consistent relationship between individuals with a genetically high HDL and a lower risk of myocardial infarction. In an effort to refocus our energies and move the lipid hypothesis forward, I have turned to the laboratory of Dan Rader, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania to address the issue of targeting HDL as a therapeutic option. Dr. Rader and his colleague Emil deGoma, MD, took on this task with enthusiasm and produced a masterful summary of the state-of-the-art of HDL altering therapy.

Each of the major articles in this edition of Lipid Spin was written by a member of NELA. I believe the quality of the contributions is outstanding and I wish to congratulate the members of NELA for rising to the task despite their summertime commitments. I hope all the readers of Lipid Spin will agree this is one of the best editions ever. Please share your copy of Lipid Spin with others and let them see firsthand just how relevant and wonderful this publication is for anyone interested in the field of Clinical Lipidology.

I hope you all had a great summer and look forward to seeing you at our Clinical Lipid Update in Charlotte, North Carolina from September 14-16.