ACC AHA guidelines classification scheme
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Please Take Over This Page and Apply to be Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [2] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.
The Class designation is used to indicate whether a therapy is recommended or not and the certainty surrounding that recommendation.
Classification of Recommendations
- Class I: Conditions for which there is evidence and/or general agreement that a given procedure or treatment is beneficial, useful, and effective.
- Class II: Conditions for which there is conflicting evidence and/or a divergence of opinion about the usefulness/efficacy of a procedure or treatment.
- Class IIa: Weight of evidence/opinion is in favor of usefulness/efficacy.
- Class IIb: Usefulness/efficacy is less well established by evidence/opinion.
- Class III: Conditions for which there is evidence and/or general agreement that a procedure/treatment is not useful/effective and in some cases may be harmful.
Use the Level of Evidence designation to indicate the strength of the data associated with that recommendation.
Level of Evidence
- Level of Evidence A: Data derived from multiple randomized clinical trials or meta-analyses.
- Level of Evidence B: Data derived from a single randomized trial, or nonrandomized studies.
- Level of Evidence C: Only consensus opinion of experts,case studies, or standard-of-care.