The leadership of the National Lipid Association convened an Expert Panel to develop a consensus set of recommendations for patient-centered management of dyslipidemia in clinical medicine. An Executive Summary of those recommendations was previously published. This document provides support for the recommendations outlined in the Executive Summary. The major conclusions include (1) an elevated level of cholesterol carried by circulating apolipoprotein B-containing lipopro-teins (non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], termed atherogenic cholesterol) is a root cause of atherosclerosis, the key underlying process contributing to most clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) events; (2) reducing elevated levels of atherogenic cholesterol will lower ASCVD risk in proportion to the extent that atherogenic cholesterol is reduced. This benefit is presumed to result from atherogenic cholesterol lowering through multiple modalities, including lifestyle and drug therapies; (3) the intensity of risk-reduction therapy should generally be adjusted to the patient's absolute risk for an ASCVD event; (4) atherosclerosis is a process that often begins early in life and progresses for decades before resulting a clinical ASCVD event. Therefore, both intermediate-term and long-term or lifetime risk should be considered when assessing the potential benefits and hazards of risk-reduction therapies; (5) for patients in whom lipid-lowering drug therapy is indicated, statin treatment is the primary modality for reducing ASCVD T.A.J. and M.K.I. are the joint first authors. risk; (6) nonlipid ASCVD risk factors should also be managed appropriately, particularly high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and diabetes mellitus; and (7) the measurement and monitoring of athero-genic cholesterol levels remain an important part of a comprehensive ASCVD prevention strategy.

An Expert Panel convened by the National Lipid Association previously developed a consensus set of recommendations for the patient-centered management of dyslipidemia in clinical medicine (part 1). These were guided by the principle that reducing elevated levels of atherogenic cholesterol (non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) reduces the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This document represents a continuation of the National Lipid Association recommendations developed by a diverse panel of experts who examined the evidence base and provided recommendations regarding the following topics: (1) lifestyle therapies; (2) groups with special considerations, including children and adolescents, women, older patients, certain ethnic and racial groups, patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and patients with residual risk despite statin and lifestyle therapies; and (3) strategies to improve patient outcomes by increasing adherence and using team-based collaborative care.

Various organizations and agencies have issued recommendations for the management of dyslipidemia. Although many commonalities exist among them, material differences are present as well. The leadership of the National Lipid Association (NLA) convened an Expert Panel to develop a consensus set of recommendations for patient-centered management of dyslipidemia in clinical medicine. The current Executive Summary highlights the major conclusions in Part 1 of the recommendations report of the NLA Expert Panel and includes: (1) background and conceptual framework for formulation of the NLA Expert Panel recommendations; (2) screening and classification of lipoprotein lipid levels in adults; (3) targets for intervention in dyslipidemia management; (4) atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk assessment and treatment goals based on risk category; (5) atherogenic cholesterol-non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-as the primary targets of therapy; and (6) lifestyle and drug therapies intended to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with dyslipidemia.