What's New for Cholesterol Guidelines

When the ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guidelines were released in November 2013, it changed the view on how to treat high cholesterol. Not everyone in the healthcare field is familiar with the changes in this newer guideline. I had to refresh my memory since it has been a long time since I last looked over it myself.

What's new:

• No randomized controlled trials that support specific LDL targets
• New equation used to estimate 10 year ASCVD (arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease) risk 
• app for iPhone/Android ASCVD Risk Estimator from ACC/AHA
• Non-statin therapies do not provide acceptable ASCVD risk reduction benefits compared to their potential adverse effects in the routine prevention of ASCVD
• There is no data to show that adding a non-statin drug to high-intensity statin therapy will provide incremental ASCVD risk reduction benefit with an acceptable margin of safety
• 4 statin benefit groups which focus efforts to reduce ASCVD events

Stone NJ, et al. 2013 ACC/AHA Blood Cholesterol Guideline. Circulation. Published online 12 Nov 2013.

more information in the next post