The guidelines, aimed at identifying adults who need medical treatment to decrease their cholesterol, establish the first specific recommendations to physicians for treating persons with high cholesterol levels. They also create a single set of blood-cholesterol goals for all adults, regardless of age or sex.

The report set three classifications, saying those with total blood cholesterol of 240 milligrams or more per deciliter of blood have "high blood cholesterol," those who measure between 200 and 239 have "borderline high blood cholesterol" and those registering below 200 have "desirable blood cholesterol."

Doctors on the panel stressed that dietary treatment should be the foundation of all therapy to reduce blood-cholesterol levels and urged physicians to prescribe drugs only for those with severely elevated cholesterol or those whom diet therapy fails to help.