If someone with heart disease has a heart attack, fixing blocked arteries might help more if their 'bad' cholesterol was already low when they arrived at the hospital.

Even when people with heart disease have really low 'bad' cholesterol, some still have heart attacks — showing that low cholesterol alone doesn’t eliminate all heart risks.

If someone with heart disease has a very low 'bad' cholesterol level when they’re admitted for a heart attack, they might be more likely to die in the hospital or later on — but this link goes away when you account for how sick they were overall.

If someone with heart disease already has low 'bad' cholesterol on standard statin pills, stepping up their treatment even more can cut the chance of needing heart procedures like stents or bypass surgery by more than a third.

If people with a recent heart problem lower their 'bad' cholesterol by more than half right away, they might get more heart protection from stronger cholesterol treatment.

If people with heart disease already have low 'bad' cholesterol from statins, going even lower might help avoid heart attacks, strokes, or surgeries like stents.