TOO MANY DOCTORS LAX ON DETECTION, TREATMENT OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL.Byline: Denise Mann Medical Tribune News Service Despite national campaigns on the importance of periodically screening adults for high cholesterol Cholesterol, High Definition Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in animal tissue and is an important component to the human body. It is manufactured in the liver and carried throughout the body in the bloodstream. , many doctors are not performing routine checks, new research suggests. In addition, many physicians are not appropriately treating people with high cholesterol, Boston researchers report. After reviewing data on 56,215 doctor visits during 1991 and 1992, researchers estimated that each year only about 9 percent of the total number of U.S. adults not known to have high cholesterol undergo a cholesterol test Cholesterol Test Definition The cholesterol test is a quantitative analysis of the cholesterol levels in a sample of the patient's blood. Total serum cholesterol (TC) is the measurement routinely taken. . But the proportion of people screened each year should be closer to 20 percent, the researchers reported in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949 to educate, research and influence health care public policy. The president for the 2006–2007 year is Steven E. Nissen. [1] The organization has 39 chapters in the U.S. . The National Cholesterol Education Program The National Cholesterol Education Program is a program managed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Its goal is to reduce increased cardiovascular disease rates due to hypercholesterolemia (elevated cholesterol (NCEP NCEP National Cholesterol Education Program ) recommends that all adults have their blood-cholesterol levels checked every five years, with more frequent screenings for those known to have high cholesterol. Among people diagnosed with high blood-cholesterol levels, the study authors estimated that only one-third are offered cholesterol-lowering advice, while just 25 percent are put on cholesterol-lowering drugs. ``Physicians probably aren't practicing as aggressively as they should if they were truly following national guidelines,'' wrote lead author Dr. Randall S. Stafford of the general internal medicine unit at Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Health care The major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, widely regarded as one of the best health care centers in the world in Boston. ``The numbers are far shorter than ideal, and it seems that there is much more screening for high blood pressure than there is for cholesterol, but both should be screened for'' because both are preventable risk factors for heart disease, said Dr. Basil Rifkind, a senior scientific advisor at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, n.pr established in 1948, this division of the National Institutes of Health is responsible for research and education on cardiovascular, pulmonary, systemic diseases, and sleep disorders. in Bethesda, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. ``Know your cholesterol,'' Rifkind advised. Cholesterol testing ``is simple, inexpensive and in the long run it can be lifesaving,'' he said. |
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