Cholesterol Guidelines and Statin Therapy: Debate Continues

Controversies involving statins and cholesterol remained prominent in 2015. One ongoing source of debate is the accuracy of the risk calculator associated with the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) treatment guideline, which classifies most older adults (age range, 60–75) as eligible for primary prevention with statins. This year's challenge to the calculator's accuracy came from analysis of data on 4200 participants (age range, 50–74) without diabetes or cardiovascular disease in the contemporary MESA cohort study. Researchers found that the ACC/AHA calculator predicted a 10-year risk for myocardial infarction, stroke, or coronary death of 9%, but the actual observed incidence was only 5%, which is low…