Screening for total cholesterol. Do the National Cholesterol Education Program's recommendations detect individuals at high risk of coronary heart disease?
This relatively low sensitivity of total cholesterol as a screening tool should be the impetus for rethinking the screening guidelines. Specifically, the cost-benefit ratio of routine screening for lipoproteins, particularly HDL cholesterol, needs to be carefully considered.
The negative predictive value achieved with the RADT determination was very high. Repetition of the test only slightly improved this percentage, making repetition of this test unnecessary.