2020–2021 BCSC Basic and Clinical Science Course™
1 Update on General Medicine
Chapter 4: Hyperlipidemia and Cardiovascular Risk
Highlights
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Therapeutic lifestyle changes remain an essential modality in the management of hyperlipidemia.
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More aggressive management of serum cholesterol and modifiable risk factors has been emphasized by the US National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
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A number of tools (eg, HeartScore, the American Heart Association’s pooled cohort equations, QRISK, MESA) are available to assess the cardiovascular risk for an individual patient.
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Numerous clinical trials have shown that effective reduction of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels substantially reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.
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Patients at very-high risk of a cardiovascular event benefit from an LDL-C reduction of at least 50% or below 70 mg/dL.
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Statin therapy is recommended for most dyslipoproteinemic adult patients with cardiometabolic risk.
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Use of statins in acute coronary syndromes reduces the risk of recurrent coronary events.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 1 - Update on General Medicine. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.