A recent study found that there was an inverse association between cholesterol efflux capacity and risk of all cause mortality in patients who have experienced an acute myocardial infarction. There was no association with HDL-cholesterol levels, suggesting that HDL function in reverse cholesterol transport is more important than the HDL-cholesterol metric. So the HDL hypothesis is still alive, just revised to focus on HDL function not necessarily HDL cholesterol content. The failed CETP inhibitor studies are consistent with this too.