High CAC, high cholesterol increase heart attack/stroke risk, cardiologists find
“We are hopeful that by making the connection between Lp(a) and CAC as dual risk drivers, we can raise awareness in the medical community and improve earlier heart attack prevention for these patients,” said cardiologist Parag Joshi, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern.
“Our data may also expedite the development of treatments designed specifically for this high-risk population,” said Dr. Joshi, a member of the Clinical Heart and Vascular Center at UT Southwestern.
Approximately one in six people in the U.S. have high Lp(a), a type of bad cholesterol whose levels are driven largely by one’s genes. Coronary artery calcium, known as CAC, is a marker of plaque deposits around the heart.
The team of researchers, which included researchers from Emory University, found that participants with combined high Lp(a) and high CAC had a 22% 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke, compared with a 10-15% 10-year risk in patients who had either risk factor alone.
Investigators identified three distinct risk-related trends:
The findings are online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and will appear in the March print edition. Read more at “What Can Lp(a) Add to CAC for ASCVD Risk Prediction? New Insights” at TMTMD.
“Establishing the connection between Lp(a) and CAC means we can move to the important next phase of research, which will be defining and personalizing early screening protocols to identify patients at high risk of heart attack,” said Dr. Joshi, whose research focuses on assessing risk for heart attack and stroke, CAC, cholesterol, and coronary CT angiography. “With further research, this could mean selectively scanning patients with high Lp(a) for their CAC score, and studying therapies specifically designed to reduce Lp(a) among patients with high CAC.”
Cardiology researchers confirmed the Lp(a) and CAC connection by comparing data from two landmark cardiovascular trials: