Management of dyslipidemia in women in the post-hormone therapy era.

OBJECTIVE

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women in the United States and is largely preventable. The American Heart Association has recently released evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of CVD in women; these include gender-specific recommendations for the management of dyslipidemia. This article reviews these recommendations and the evidence supporting them.

DESIGN

This was a qualitative review of a systematic literature search related to lipid guidelines for women and discussion of rationale and evidence for new clinical recommendations.

MAIN RESULTS

Lifestyle modifications are the cornerstone of lipid management. Substantial evidence from randomized clinical trials supports the use of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-lowering therapy (primarily statins) in all high-risk women and the use of niacin or fibrates when high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is low or non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is elevated. Fewer data are available for women at lower or intermediate risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Encouragement of lifestyle modification and appropriate use of lipid-altering therapy will have a substantial impact on reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease in women.