Correspondence to...

Dyslipidemia in patients with the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Although therapies reducing low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) have been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk by ≈30%,1 patients attaining LDL-C reduction goals still remain at high cardio-vascular risk. Indeed, diabetic dyslipidemia is characterized by hypertriglyceridemia and low levels of high density lipo-protein-cholesterol (HDL-C), which are known to be inversely correlated with cardiovascular risk.2 This inverse correlation may be related to the key role of HDL in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), a process promoting the return of cholesterol from macrophage in the arterial wall to the liver for further biliary and fecal excretion.3 Hence, a promising alternative to further reduce cardiovascular risk is represented by therapies raising HDL-C