Changing perspectives in the prevention of coronary artery disease.

Today the question is no longer whether cholesterol reduction is beneficial for those at risk for coronary artery disease; the questions now are when, whom and how to treat. Areas of great interest include extrapolation of current trial results to low density lipoprotein reduction by diet and drugs, and assessment of the value of increasing high density lipoprotein levels by pharmacologic means. We will need to decide what measurements (total cholesterol, lipoprotein cholesterol or lipoprotein apoprotein levels) are of most value to the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of the at-risk patient. Recommendations, including those of the recently published National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel on Cholesterol Lowering, suggest that our index for diagnosis and treatment should be set considerably lower than it is today. To be successful with a more aggressive approach to cholesterol lowering, we will need to better support, educate and motivate the at-risk patient. Physicians need to become more knowledgeable about what plasma cholesterol is and how to change it. Methods that enhance patient adherence to diet and drug therapy must be developed. We will need to alter lifetime habits and will need the help of both the food industry and better informed consumers, knowledgeable on how to read food labels, if we are to succeed. Ultimately, we will need a 2-pronged approach, focusing on both the physician and the public at large.