The study followed approximately 35,000 coronary heart diseases patients in a Veterans Affairs network over 11 months.
Of the approximately 30,000 heart disease patients with safe LDL levels recorded at a recent visit, one-third were retested unnecessarily for cholesterol levels during an 11-month follow-up period.
Study authors suggest that improving cholesterol medication guidelines for those with coronary heart disease to a dose-based approach rather than a treat-to-target-level approach could greatly reduce the number of redundant tests performed.
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