Objectives To examine ethnic differences of target-goal achievement of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) among patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in departments of cardiology from China and Germany at university hospitals.

Methods From Janunary 2012 to December 2012, 661 stable CHD patients were consecutively enrolled from China and 316 stable CHD patients from Germany, all of which were hospitalised in cardiac wards of university hospitals. Baseline fasting LDL-C values at admission were collected and analysed. Target-goal achievement of LDL-C (reference to ESC/EAS guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias 2011 and guidelines for management of adult dyslipidemia in China 2007) was calculated for Chinese and Germany patients respectively.

Results At admission, compared to patients with CHD(+)/T2DM(-) in Germany, rate of target-goal achievement of LDL-C (<2.6 mmol/L) among patients from China was higher (49.31% vs 31.64%, p < 0.05). However, when patients with CHD(+)/T2DM(+) in China and Germany were compared, there were no significant differences in the rate of target-goal achievement of LDL-C [reference to Chinese guidelines, LDL-C < 2.08 mmol/L, 26.47% vs 23.52%, p = 0.569; reference to ESC/EAS guidelines, LDL-C<1.8 mmol/L, 12.18% vs 11.76%, p = 0.913].

Conclusions There exists ethnic differences and low target-goal achievement of LDL-C for secondary prevention between patients with stable CHD combined with T2DM or not in departments of cardiology of university hospitals from China and Germany. Active measures should be taken to improve this suboptimal status.