1397 Lipids Workshop IV Participants

T he American Heart Association Prevention I Conference dealt exclusively with issues related to blood cholesterol level and disease.' The AHA has endorsed a number of national recommendations and guidelines in this area, including the Adult Treatment Panel Guidelines on the Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults,2 the Report of the Expert Panel on Population Strategies for Blood Cholesterol Reduction,3 the Report for the Laboratory Standardization Panel of the National Cholesterol Education Program,4 the Report of the Expert Panel on Blood Cholesterol Levels in Children and Adolescents,5 and the joint American Heart Association-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute report on cholesterol lowering in patients with established heart disease.6 A recent National Institutes of Health consensus conference focused on triglycerides, high-density lipoproteins, and coronary heart disease.7 Because the research on coronary heart disease and serum lipids is so extensive, only the relation of behavioral factors to serum lipids, and vice versa, are addressed: patient and physician behaviors related to cholesterol awareness, screening, diagnosis, and followup; eating behaviors as determinants of serum lipid levels; compliance of physicians and hyperlipidemic patients with guidelines for use of lipid-lowering medications; and the possible effect of low serum lipids on behaviors such as depression and aggression.