Estimating the Potential Effect of the New Cholesterol Guidelines

The 2013 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines recommend statin therapy for most people who are 60 to 75.

Anyone who has plugged numbers into the new risk calculator from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC-AHA) will recognize that more people — especially older adults without clinical evidence of cardiovascular (CV) disease — would be classified as “eligible” for statin therapy according to the new cholesterol guidelines (NEJM JW Gen Med Nov 12 2013). To quantitate this effect, researchers used data from a representative sample of 3800 adults (age range, 40–75) and extrapolated from this sample to the overall U.S. population.

Compared with the 2004 Third Adult Treatment Panel (ATP-III) guidelines, following the new ACC-AHA guidelines would increase the proportion of people 40 to 75 recommended for statin thera…

Reviewing Author

Allan S. Brett, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Allan S. Brett, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Estimating the Potential Effect of the New Cholesterol Guidelines

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Reviewing Author