Heart guidelines authors defend method of calculating risk

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Heart guidelines authors defend method of calculating risk

By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot Dallas (Reuters) - Top cardiologists who devised new U.S. guidelines for reducing risk of heart disease strenuously defended their risk-calculation tool from criticism that it greatly overestimates health risks and the need to be treated with cholesterol lowering statin drugs. Two Harvard professors, Dr. Paul Ridker and Dr. Nancy Cook, sparked the controversy by saying the risk calculator was flawed in its assessment for some populations and could lead to unnecessary therapy for millions of Americans, according to a report in Monday's New York Times. Their concerns spurred prominent cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic to call for a delay in putting the new guidelines into practice, the report said. A half dozen cardiologists who helped formulate the guidelines over a four-year period criticized Ridker's own methodology at a hastily called news conference during the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) in Dallas.

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