Review of the 2016 European Dyslipidaemia Guidelines

In 2016 the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) published guidelines on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in clinical practice, with sections addressing global strategies to minimise the burden of CVD at population and individual levels. A few months later in August, the 2016 ESC / European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) published guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias, focusing on their evaluation and treatment. The release of these guidelines was a source of great interest among clinicians, as new emergent therapies, such as proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of dyslipidaemias. Concurrently, the ESC/EAS produced a consensus paper in order to guide clinicians in the appropriate use of PCSK9 inhibitors for patients at high risk of CVD. These papers followed on from the extremely controversial 2013 American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines on the treatment of blood cholesterol, in which the indication for statin therapy was extended to primary prevention according to the new recommended Pooled Cohort equations. Furthermore, the concept of a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol target was withdrawn, and the intensity of statin therapy defined according to CVD risk for the patients. In this review article, we will summarise the key points, as well as the novelties of the 2016 ESC/EAS guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias and prevention of CVD.