2019 ESC/EAS Guidelines for Dyslipidaemia – What’s New?

The European Society of Cardiology and the European Atherosclerotic Society are recommending in the 2019 guideline for dyslipidemia the best management strategies for an individual patient with a given condition.

The guideline recommends the use of new tests to help identify high-risk patients. These include both coronary artery calcium imaging and biomarker tests.

Modifications have also been made to the risk stratification categories, so that patients with atherosclerotic artery disease, diabetes mellitus with target organ damage, familial hypercholesterolaemia and severe chronic kidney disease are all included in very-high risk patients.

The new ESC/EAS guideline for dyslipidemia management compared with the 2016 version include more intensive reduction of LDL-c across CV risk categories. If the goals are not achieved with the maximum tolerated dose of statin, combination with ezetimibe is recommended. An important message of the new guideline is that until this moment there are no known adverse effects of very low LDL-c concentrations.