You will notice that I have a number of videos on cholesterol on my website, which is one of the commonest topics I get asked about. These days though, we have moved well beyond standard cholesterol panels. I discuss such things as Apolipoproteins and Lipoprotein (a) -Lp(a) for short- in those videos, but in brief as a reminder, Lp (a) is a marker of increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Importantly however, it is genetically inherited.
If I see a young person with a heart attack who has normal cholesterol and no other risk factors, Lp (a) is always something I think about. I was therefore interested to read a research paper in the highly respected Journal of the American College of Cardiology this week on just this topic. We already know that having a having a raised Lp (a) increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke, but now it appears that the magnitude of that increased risk varies whether a person does or does not already have cardiac disease. You may recall from previous blogs that doctors call this primary or secondary prevention.
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