Dr. Virgil Brown Presents Perspectives Surrounding Cholesterol Targets at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions

On Sunday, Nov. 16, at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, W. Virgil Brown, MD—Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and Founding President of the National Lipid Association (NLA)—facilitated and participated in a debate about cholesterol targets. The session (which also featured commentary from Dr. Jennifer Robinson of Iowa City) provided an opportunity to engage in thoughtful dialogue with global cardiovascular thought leaders about cholesterol targets.

Given the recent introduction of the NLA Recommendations for Patient-Centered Management of Dyslipidemia (click here to view the Recommendations), this topic is particularly timely. The new NLA Recommendations were developed to guide healthcare providers in the diagnosis and treatment of lipid disorders and are intended to provide additional expert guidance to previous guidelines including the American College of Cardiology (ACC)/AHA guidelines.

Dr. Brown’s presentation—entitled “Debate: Best Lipid Therapy for CVD Prevention Is Titration to Cholesterol Targets—Lower Is Better”—explored three questions critical to cholesterol management and integral to the NLA’s message regarding its Patient-Centered Recommendations, including:

• Whom do you treat?
• With what treatment?
• How intensively do you treat?

The cornerstone of Dr. Brown’s remarks focused on the need of providers to clearly define what they are treating, in this case the atherogenic cholesterol level, and with clear goals of therapy. All guidelines and recommendations (including the new NLA Recommendations) should serve the patient by enhancing adherence through monitoring of therapy. These strategic frameworks provide assurance to the patient that the provider understands what the recommended target of treatment is and how to measure success.

This presentation (part of a 10-part series focusing on Clinical Lipidology Updates) resulted in conversation about the best way for providers to manage and monitor cholesterol targets to a packed, engaged room. The dialogue between Dr. Robinson and Dr. Brown provided the hundreds of attendees with opposing viewpoints, as Dr. Robinson advocated in defense of the 2013 ACC/AHA guidelines for the management of patients with elevated cholesterol while Dr. Brown repeatedly emphasized the importance of defining treatment and assigning goals. Attendees were receptive to the spirited conversation and the topic was certainly timely, given the debate occurred the day before the IMPROVE-IT results were announced.

Dr. W. Virgil Brown is the Founding President of the NLA, and he has previously served as the National AHA president. In addition, Dr. Brown is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.