Guidance
This guideline covers identifying and managing familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a specific type of high cholesterol that runs in the family, in children, young people and adults. It aims to help identify people at increased risk of coronary heart disease as a result of having FH.
In October 2019, we changed the first recommendation on case finding and diagnosis to be clearer about when to suspect familial hypercholesterolaemia.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- diagnosis
- identifying people with FH using cascade testing
- drug treatment, lifestyle interventions and specialist treatment
- information and support on contraception for women with FH and for pregnant women with FH
- review and referral for evaluation of coronary heart disease
Who is it for?
- Healthcare professionals
- Commissioners and providers
- Children, young people and adults, and their families and carers
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
This guideline was previously called identification and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia.
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.