Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, in whom the absolute risk of CHD, for any given level of serum cholesterol, is estimated to be approximately three times greater than for adults without diabetes. Against this background, the results of the Collaborative AtoRvastatin Diabetes Study (CARDS), presented recently at the 64th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association [Orlando, US; June, 2004], show that lipid-lowering therapy is effective for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events in diabetic patients with no prior history of myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke. Patients with type 2 diabetes who were treated with atorvastatin [Lipitor] at a daily dose of 10mg had a 37% reduction in the risk of major cardiovascular events and a 48% reduction in the incidence of stroke, compared with patients who received placebo; overall mortality in atorvastatin-treated patients was also reduced, by 27%. Moreover, these benefits extended to patients whose LDL-cholesterol levels were already relatively low prior to commencing treatment with atorvastatin, suggesting that statin therapy may be of significant benefit to the majority of patients with diabetes.