Local Guidance for monitoring of patients on Statins or other lipid-lowering treatments.
Lipid/cholesterol requesting
Please follow the guidelines shown below for guidance on requesting frequency for lipids/cholesterol:
- Response to therapy can be assessed at 3 months from initiation or dose increases.
- Standard practice for subsequent follow-up monitoring is 6 – 12 months, but such monitoring intervals are arbitrary.
- As a minimum, total cholesterol should be assessed, but better management decisions will probably occur if a full fasting lipid profile is performed, including HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides.
- Patients with hypertriglyceridaemia or combined hyperlipidaemia should be monitored with a full fasting lipid profile as non-fasting lipid profile does not include triglycerides.
Dr J. Cabrera-Abreu
Lipid Clinic
Department of Clinical Biochemistry
Royal Berkshire Hospital