Cholesterol Guidelines

Excerpt

To the Editor: American physicians may be surprised, but much of the rest of the medical world is not enamored of the cholesterol guidelines set forth by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). In general, the British medical profession believes that Americans are going overboard in their approach to preventing atherosclerotic disease. The British response to American enthusiasm is medical nihilism; British physicians test and treat only persons at extremely high risk.

The Toronto Working Group on Cholesterol Policy plan, discussed in a recent editorial by Dr. Garber (1), seems to be a reasonable compromise. However, this plan is simply