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Practical Implementation of the 2013 AHA/ACC Blood Cholesterol Guidelines

  • Prevention (L Sperling and D Gaita, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. Choosing the appropriate patients for whom to initiate statin therapy to reduce the risk of ASCVD is of paramount importance. The new AHA/ACC guidelines on the treatment of cholesterol emphasize a patient-centered approach that shifts away from arbitrary LDL-C goals and recommends targeting statin therapy in patient populations that show ASCVD risk-reduction benefit. In addition, the guidelines emphasize lifestyle modification and the importance of the clinician-patient relationship in discussing ASCVD risk and initiating statin therapy.

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References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. John Dinkler declares no potential conflict of interest.

Dr. Karol Watson declares personal fees from Merck & Co.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCLA Division of Cardiology, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    John Dinkler MD, MPH & Karol Watson MD, PhD

  2. UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Karol Watson MD, PhD

Authors
  1. John Dinkler MD, MPH
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  2. Karol Watson MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karol Watson MD, PhD.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Prevention

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Dinkler, J., Watson, K. Practical Implementation of the 2013 AHA/ACC Blood Cholesterol Guidelines. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 16, 347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0347-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0347-9

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