Dr Bindra's Homeopathy Clinic and Cardio Life Care

'SURPRISING' New Recommendations on Triglycerides by American Heart Association

A new scientific statement raises the threshold for pharmacologic treatment of hypertriglyceridemia.

I just received AHA Guidelines for Hypertriglyceridemia and was shocked to read the new guidelines for Treatment protocol in High Triglycerides. I am not sure whether this will work in Indian Patients too or not because Lifestyle and Diet for Indians will definitely reflect a different picture of this protocol. I think this has to be reviewed again at our own clinical experiences with our patients. Let's see how it gonna work over here.

I've been surprised at the lack of fanfare surrounding the American Heart Association's recently published scientific statement on triglycerides and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The attention it did receive focused on the lower fasting triglyceride level that is now considered optimal: <100 mg/dL. In my opinion, the real headline was the committee's important statements in support of less drug treatment — in particular, the recommendation for a substantial increase in the triglyceride level that should trigger consideration of pharmacologic therapy.

After a careful review of the recent literature, the committee concluded that pharmacologic therapy should not be started until a patient's fasting triglyceride level is 500 mg/dL (in contrast to the Adult Treatment Panel's recommendation of 200 mg/dL). See the figure, which also appears on page 2308 of the AHA statement.

The AHA committee also explicitly acknowledges (on page 2297) that "the independence of triglyceride level as a causal factor in promoting CVD remains debatable. Rather, triglyceride levels appear to provide unique information as a biomarker of risk, especially when combined with low HDL-C and elevated LDL-C." This clear statement — together with the new, higher threshold for initiating drug treatment — represents a remarkable change.

(Source: Publication on AHA Guidelines 2011)