What Are the Criteria for Starting a Statin?

Guest: Monique A. Freund, M.D.

Host: Darryl S. Chutka, M.D. (@ChutkaMD)

Hyperlipidemia is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. It’s known that a combination of lifestyle changes and pharmacologic therapy has proven effective in reducing the complications of cardiovascular disease. Despite this, it’s estimated that less than 35% of those patients with hyperlipidemia are adequately managed. Why aren’t we doing a better job at managing this major public health problem? In this podcast, we’ll be speaking with Monique A. Freund, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic. We’ll discuss how to optimize management of hyperlipidemia, which lifestyle changes are beneficial, when to use pharmacologic therapy and how to manage patients with statin intolerance.

Specific topics:

• Relative importance of elevated LDLc, low HDLc and elevated triglycerides
• Effective non-pharmacologic therapy for treating elevated LDLc, low HDLc and elevated triglycerides
• When to consider starting a patient on a statin
• Benefits of fish oil
• Mechanism of action of statins
• Statin intolerance
• When to use ezetimibe
• When to use one of the PCSK9-inhibitors

Connect with the Mayo Clinic’s School of Continuous Professional Development online at https://ce.mayo.edu/ or on Twitter @MayoMedEd.