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Two new guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology — one on cardiovascular risk assessment, the other on cholesterol management — spurred considerable controversy towards the end of 2013.
The risk-assessment guideline presents new sex-specific equations, developed from multiple large cohorts, to predict 10-year risk for first atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events (ASCVD; nonfatal myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease–related death, or fatal or nonfatal stroke). An online risk calculator, which requires input of age, sex, total and HDL cholesterol levels, and several other risk factors, enables clinicians to generate 10-year risk estimates for specific patients. If treatment decisions are…