Critical appraisal of the clinical practice guideline for the management of dyslipidaemia and prevention of cardiovascular disease: AACE 2017 guidelines.

Objective: This study aims to appraise 2017 AACE Guidelines for Management of Dyslipidemia and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease by using Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) tool. Method: A total of seven investigators who have obtained a postgraduate Doctor of Pharmacy or Masters of Clinical Pharmacy, appraised the dyslipidaemia guidelines independently, by using AGREE II tool. Key findings: Among all the domains, the highest-scoring domain was the clarity of presentation (87%), and the lowest was the applicability (26%). The assessors gave the top ranking for both ‘scope and purpose’ (78%) and ‘Editorial independence’ (79%). The overall guideline assessment was 61%. Most of the investigators (four out of seven) recommended using the guidelines in clinical practice with modifications. Conclusion: The appraisal obtained in this article can be utilized by guideline developers to improve the quality of their upcoming guidelines. Healthcare professionals can be aware of guideline limitations and the importance of quality assessment of the guideline before applying their recommendations whenever possible by using Agree II tool