TY - JOUR T1 - Hit or miss: the new cholesterol targets JF - BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine JO - BMJ EBM DO - 10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111413 SP - bmjebm-2020-111413 AU - Robert DuBroff AU - Aseem Malhotra AU - Michel de Lorgeril Y1 - 2020/07/19 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/08/23/bmjebm-2020-111413.abstract N2 - Drug treatment to reduce cholesterol to new target levels is now recommended in four moderate- to high-risk patient populations: patients who have already sustained a cardiovascular event, adult diabetic patients, individuals with low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels ≥190 mg/dL and individuals with an estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk ≥7.5%. Achieving these cholesterol target levels did not confer any additional benefit in a systematic review of 35 randomised controlled trials. Recommending cholesterol lowering treatment based on estimated cardiovascular risk fails to identify many high-risk patients and may lead to unnecessary treatment of low-risk individuals. The negative results of numerous cholesterol lowering randomised controlled trials call into question the validity of using low density lipoprotein cholesterol as a surrogate target for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. ER -