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Control of cardiovascular risk factors through aggressive pharmacotherapy and lifestyle interventions is the backbone for treating stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD). These investigators tested the hypothesis that the greater number of risk-factor goals achieved, the better the long-term survival, in an analysis of observational follow-up data from the COURAGE trial, which randomized patients to receive optimal medical therapy (OMT) with or without percutaneous coronary intervention (NEJM JW Cardiol May 2007 and N Engl J Med 2007; 356:1503). Control of risk factors was defined as follows:
LDL <85 mg/dL
Systolic blood pressure <130 mm Hg
Body-mass index <25 kg/m2 or if >27.5 kg/m2, ≥10% weight loss
Not smoking
>150 minutes weekly of moderate ph…