Should Hypercholesterolemia in Elderly Persons Be Treated?

Excerpt

To the Editors: Before we start a massive treatment program for hypercholesterolemia in elderly persons, as recommended in the review article by Denke and Grundy (1) and endorsed in the editorial by Kafonek and Kwiterovich (2), several notes of caution must be injected. I would emphasize that the recommendation to treat is based on extrapolation of data from younger patients and that there is currently no evidence that lowering cholesterol levels will alter the risk for heart disease in the elderly. Even the current studies have not looked at persons in their 70s and 80s. Yet these people have heard