Following on from the recent Australian media debate over the use of statins, the major heart organisations in the USA have just released new guidelines, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines [J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013;():. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2013.11.005].
A useful summary of the changes in the US can be found in Tuesday's New York Times article, Experts reshape treatment guide for cholesterol, by Gina Kolata. Doctors are encouraged to prescribe statins to high risk patients (those who have diabetes or have had a heart attack), and to those who have very high levels of LDL cholesterol. Others should be considered for statin therapy if, using a new risk calculator their risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years is at least 7.5 percent. There is less emphasis on lowering cholesterol by specific amounts, and as Kolata reports, "It is not clear whether more or fewer people will end up taking the drugs under the new guidelines, experts said. Many women and African-Americans, who have a higher-than-average risk of stroke, may find themselves candidates for treatment, but others taking statins only to lower LDL cholesterol to target levels may no longer need them."
A useful summary of the changes in the US can be found in Tuesday's New York Times article, Experts reshape treatment guide for cholesterol, by Gina Kolata. Doctors are encouraged to prescribe statins to high risk patients (those who have diabetes or have had a heart attack), and to those who have very high levels of LDL cholesterol. Others should be considered for statin therapy if, using a new risk calculator their risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years is at least 7.5 percent. There is less emphasis on lowering cholesterol by specific amounts, and as Kolata reports, "It is not clear whether more or fewer people will end up taking the drugs under the new guidelines, experts said. Many women and African-Americans, who have a higher-than-average risk of stroke, may find themselves candidates for treatment, but others taking statins only to lower LDL cholesterol to target levels may no longer need them."
New US guidelines on cholesterol treatment
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