“…In epidemiological studies, traditional risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels, do not explain the risk associated with CVD in type 2 diabetic patients ( Beckman et al, 2002 ; Gore et al, 2015 ; Haffner et al, 1998 ; Hayward et al, 2015 ). Moreover, intervention studies showed that increased mortality is observed even when plasma cholesterol levels are aggressively lowered with statin treatment, hypertension is controlled, or with aggressive glycemic control ( Banach et al, 2016 ; Gore et al, 2015 ).…”