Useful For

Assessing cardiovascular risk. Lipoprotein(a) is one of the risk enhancers for cardiovascular risk prediction, for those in borderline to intermediate risk groups (reference 1).

Consider testing in patients with family history of high cholesterol, or premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (<55 years for men, and <65 years for women, reference 2).

Other risk enhancers are:

• Family history of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

• Chronic inflammatory or autoimmune disorders (rheumatoid arthritis, SLE, HIV)

• Persistently elevated triglycerides

• Metabolic syndrome

• Premature menopause (before 40 years old)

• Severe mental illness

• Abnormal ankle-brachial index (<0.9) without symptoms of PAD

Reference:

1. Agency for clinical effectiveness (ACE) guidelines for Lipid Management 2023.

2. 2019 ACC/AHA guidelines on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. J Am Coll Cardiol 2019;74:e177-e232.