Cholesterol Screening in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released an update to its Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care, also known as the periodicity schedule, which will publish in the January 2016 issue of Pediatrics (published online Dec. 7). Among the updates is a new recommendation that will call for the screening of dyslipidemia, or high blood cholesterol levels, for patients between 9 and 11 years old. This recommendation is in keeping with the NLA Recommendations Part 1 and 2. Donnie Wilson, MD, FNLA, director of the Pediatric Lipid Clinic at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and one of the authors of Part 2 Recommendations, answered the questions below: