From Helio.com: VIDEO: Expert discusses NLA cholesterol recommendations, CVD prevention

CHICAGO — In this video, James A. Underberg, MD, discusses recommendations from the National Lipid Association for patient-centric management of cholesterol abnormalities, and how they connect with the results of the IMPROVE-IT trial presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

Underberg, clinical assistant professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine, NYU Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, and director of the lipid clinic at Bellevue Hospital in New York, noted that the NLA called for the use of statins as a standard therapy in all patients at risk for CVD who require pharmacologic intervention. However, he said, the addition of incremental nonstatin medications to further reduce LDL and non-HDL cholesterol is a key element of overall treatment. The IMPROVE-IT trial, in which the addition of ezetimibe to therapy with simvastatin in patients with ACS resulted in a significant 6.4% reduction in CV events compared with standard statin therapy, supports this idea, Underberg said.

He also stressed the need for targets for cholesterol treatment in the management of patients with risk for CVD and abnormal cholesterol. The use of LDL or non-HDL cholesterol as treatment targets benefits both physicians and patients, in that practitioners can easily understand whether they are achieving proper treatment, while patients can have a better sense of how their therapy is benefiting them.

Click here to watch the video.