How frequently do you obtain lipoprotein (a) levels on asymptomatic patients without a prior history of CAD?
Recent recommendations are considering that the entire population ought to be tested at least once in their lifetime given the estimated prevalence in the general population of some degree of elevation in as many as 20% of the population.
That said I certainly check in most people with a family hist...
This becomes more relevant as treatments that target lp(a) come out like the drug Eli Lilly is working on (lepidisiran). None are approved yet. The main aim for me has been driving LDL as low as possible and better understanding of how aggressive CAD patients with unimpressive LDL levels are having ...
I find it useful to help guide how aggressively to treat a patient's underlying Lipid abnormalities. If patients understand that in addition to other classic risk profile abnormalities, they have a measurable hereditary "abnormality", they are more likely to accept aggressive lipid management. Despi...
I tend to check a LP(a) level once when risk assessing patients who may not be accurately assessed by the traditional calculators, especially those who have multiple risk modifying factors (ethnicity, early FH, etc) to then have a more informed discussion about how aggressively to address their risk...
We have struggled to find consistency in insurance coverage for this. It's something I wish we could do more frequently since it's as easy as getting a Chem-7 done. That said, the typical new patient already presents with risk factors in this geographical region - including diabetes and/or CKD frequ...