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N. Burgess Record, Jr, MD; Sandra S. Record, RN
Franklin Memorial Hospital Farmington, Me

JAMA. 1988;259(4):518-519.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.

—High blood cholesterol levels and high blood pressure share many similarities, including day-to-day individual variation and regression to the mean. Determining a stable baseline against which to measure change is difficult. The SD of repeated measurements in an individual over time has been reported as 0.5 mmol/L (18 mg/dL) for total cholesterol level. The National Cholesterol Education Program¹ recommends using the average of two values obtained one to eight weeks apart to guide subsequent decisions in patients whose initial cholesterol level is above 5.15 mmol/L (200 mg/dL).

The intent of our letter was not to report an experiment but to describe our early experience with an innovative blood pressure/cholesterol screening program. Others have already demonstrated that prudent dietary change will lower cholesterol levels an average of 10% to 15%; that those with the highest levels will drop the most; and that each 1% lowering of cholesterol level . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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