| LipidManagement™ is certified
for CME credit.
PLEASE
NOTE: LipidManagement™ now offers 1 category
1 credit toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition
Award FOR EACH OF THE QUARTERLY ISSUES.
Readers can apply for instant CME credit quarterly
beginning with this edition. Simply go to the NLEC
website, lipidhealth.org, and click on the “LipidManagement™
Newsletter” navigation bar. Then just click
on the link for the current issue’s CME test,
answer the questions, and apply for instant credit. |
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading the articles in this issue of LipidManagement™,
participants should be able to:
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Identify patient circumstances in which
the coexistence of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia
is likely |
| • |
Summarize the findings thus far in current
research that demonstrate a correlation between hypertension
and hypercholesterolemia |
| • |
Explain the effect of lipid-lowering
drugs on hypertension and the effect of blood pressure–lowering
drugs on hypercholesterolemia |
Intended audience:
primary-care physicians, cardiologists, endocrinologists, nephrologists
Release date: March 31, 2003
End date: March 31, 2004
This CME activity is sponsored by Thomson Professional Postgraduate
Services®, Secaucus, NJ.
Thomson Professional Postgraduate Services®
is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical
Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Thomson Professional Postgraduate Services®
designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 category
1 credit toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each
physician should claim only those credits that he/she actually
spent in the activity.
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HIGHLIGHTS from the NLEC’s Annual Update Meeting
In February, the National Lipid Education Council™ held its
Annual Update Meeting in Half Moon Bay, California. This year’s
gathering, with an agenda entitled “Strategies for CVD Risk
Reduction,” was attended by more than 50 of the NLEC steering
committee and council members, many of whom are the leading experts
in lipids and cholesterol control. Also in attendance as guest speakers
were Professor Chris J. Packard, BSc, PhD, DSc, study director of
the PROSPER trial, and Gerald M. Reaven, MD, a leading researcher
on the subject of insulin resistance.
After hearing four didactic presentations, attendees
examined and discussed case studies during afternoon workshops. These
eight case studies were submitted by practicing primary care physicians
who were among the 55 answering the NLEC’s “Call for Case
Studies” posted on this website. Several of the physicians whose
cases were selected also attended the meeting. All of the workshops
were lively and the cases thought-provoking, a few of them even coming
close to “stumping the experts”!
An archived webcast is posted on this website.
Here are a few highlights from the presentations:
Safety Issues Associated With Cholesterol Lowering: In
this era of rapidly changing advanced therapies, there is an increasingly
closer watch on their safety profiles. In this talk, the topic of
myopathy was covered in relation to statin monotherapy and combination
treatment with other existing and emerging therapies. Conclusions:
Statin therapy is safe and extremely effective in the vast majority
of patients, but should be used with caution and careful monitoring
in selected patients.
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Presenter: Richard Pasternak, MD, Director,
Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Boston |
The Obesity–CVD Connection: This presentation
explored the clinically proven link between overweight/obesity and
an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. The ties between obesity
and insulin resistance as well as between the metabolic syndrome/type
2 diabetes and CVD were also discussed. The involvement of lipids
in these processes was examined.
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Presenter: Gerald M. Reaven,
MD, Professor Emeritus (Active) of Medicine, Stanford University
School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California |
After HRT: What’s a Doctor To Do?: This
presentation on hormone replacement therapy and CHD brought the
audience up to date on the often confusing and conflicting recent
study conclusions on whether HRT is cardioprotective. Recently released
data has served to confuse patients and also leave physicians themselves
questioning which treatment options to use.
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Presenter: Elizabeth Barrett-Connor,
MD, Chief, Division of Epidemiology, University of California
School of Medicine, LaJolla |
The Rationale for Lipid Lowering in the Elderly:
The recent PROSPER (Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly
at Risk) trial showed that treating high cholesterol in the elderly
population is not only safe, but also worthwhile. This presentation
focused on the data showing that the benefits of statin treatment
extend from middle to older age, especially when therapy is targeted
at those with low HDL-C.
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Presenter: Chris J. Packard, BSc,
PhD, DSc, Clinical Scientist, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland,
UK |
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