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medpundit |
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Saturday, April 12, 2003New guidelines developed by the heart association urge primary care physicians to consider family history of heart disease, diet and physical activity of their young patients and, if necessary, provide recommendations to families on changes that could forestall the future development of heart disease. In some instances, drugs for hypertension and high cholesterol may be in order for children identified as being at high risk for early heart disease, according to the guidelines. What will they think of next? In utero statins? These aren’t by any means “evidence-based” guidelines, either: There is no question that preventing cardiovascular disease is an important goal, Dr. Berg said, but there is also no solid evidence that interventions that work in adults will work the same way in children and adolescents. "It's hard to dispute that we would be better off if children exercise more and eat healthier diets. But on the other hand, when you get into issues like treating elevated lipids or blood pressure in 3-year-olds, the quality of evidence is different, and you might have a different take on those recommendations," he said. Yes, it's much different committing a growing child to drugs that are taken for a lifetime, with no knowledge of how those drugs would affect growth and development, all to reduce the incidence of coronary artery disease by a few percentage points. What is the American Heart Association thinking? (Click here for more on statins. If archives are screwy, look for "Cholesterol Caution" post.) posted by Sydney on 4/12/2003 08:52:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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