#1 ST. FRANCIS―authors state “study was underpowered and undertreated”.

#2 IDEAL―not blinded and better adherence to control than atorvastatin intervention.

#3 FIELD―More placebo subjects added confounding statin therapy (p < 0.001).

#4 4D―Atorvastatin reduced the rate of all cardiovascular events combined (p < 0.03).

#5 ASPEN―Protocol changed at 2 years from secondary to primary intervention.

#6 WHI―Only 8.6% of the participants had lipid profiles measured.

#7 ILLUMINATE―Trial terminated early due adverse effects of the CETP inhibitor.

#8 CDRONA―Heart failure only patients, usually excluded from CVD trials.

#9 SEAS―Simvastatin plus ezetimibe reduced all ischemic CVD events (p < 0.02).

#10 GISSI-HF―Study examined death from heart failure, irrespective of cause.

#11 AURORA―The extremely high CRP indicating inflammation was never reduced.

#12 SEARCH―Excessive myopathy in the simvastatin arm vs. control (53 vs. 2).

#13 AIM-HIGH―In a niacin trial, all patients also received simvastatin plus ezetimibe.

#14 SDHS―Critical data lost, no LDLc data reported. Protocol out of date.

#15 HPS2-THRIVE―Niacin caused a significant increase in diabetes, bleeding, etc.

#16 ACCELERATE―The CETP inhibitor raised blood pressure & C-reactive protein.

#17 HIJ-PROPER―Ezetimibe significantly reduced CVD events in hyper-absorbers.

#18 EMPATHY―Japanese study which lost patients and data during an earth quake.

Most of the above unanticipated flaws occurred in the execution and follow-up of the study and were not included in the initial design of the study protocol.