Dispute about new cholesterol treatment guidelines

(The Boston Globe, November 19, 2013)

A new guideline for treating people at risk for heart disease, including a risk calculator, has been raising concerns from researchers: Brigham and Women's Hospital cardiologist Paul Ridker and biostatistician Nancy Cook tested the new tool by applying it to more than 100,000 people who had been followed for decades in Brigham-led studies. They found that it overestimated a person’s 10-year risk of having a heart attack or stroke by 75 to 150 percent, based on the study participants who later went on to develop these cardiovascular problems. The new guideline proposes that the identified individuals - potentially millions of Americans - be put on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to prevent heart attacks and strokes.