(Circulation. 2001;103:e9045.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News
New Cholesterol Prevention and Management Guidelines Call for More Aggressive Diagnosis and Treatment
New guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) issued May 15, 2001 (JAMA. 2001;285:2486-2497), call for more aggressive cholesterol lowering treatment and better identification of those at high risk for heart attack. The report is the first update of the guidelines issued by this panel of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in more than a decade.
"Americans at high risk for a heart attack are too often not identified and so don’t receive sufficiently aggressive treatment," said Claude Lenfant, MD, director of the NHLBI. "Yet, studies show conclusively that lowering the level of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the ‘bad cholesterol,’ can reduce the short-term risk for heart disease by as much as 40%. Treatment may lower risk over the long-term (that beyond 10 years) even more. That is why, although the intensity of the treatment in ATP III (the Third Report of the NCEP Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults) is stepped up, its primary aim remains squarely on lowering LDL."
The panel said those at highest risk for a heart attack include those with heart disease, diabetes, and multiple risk factors. Diabetes can pose as great a heart attack risk within a decade as do multiple risk factors and heart disease, according to the panel. As a result, ATP III advises treating individuals in all 3 groups with equal intensity.
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