New cholesterol screening guidelines capture childhood risk, too, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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A new clinical guideline to manage cholesterol levels in the blood has been released by the American College of Cardiology. Johns Hopkins cardiologist Seth Martin participated in writing the guidelines and says that shifting risk assessment and management strategies for blood cholesterol to young adults and even children can help change one’s risk for cardiovascular disease.

Martin: It's pretty common to have lipid abnormalities even at a younger age in adolescence, so that about 20% or so of adolescents can have abnormal lipid values. Having a specific genetic condition like familial hypercholesterolemia is not quite as common but it's common enough that we should be looking for it because it's present in about one in 250 people so it's something we don't want to miss. Currently most are not getting lipid screening at those ages so we have a lot of room for improvement.  :28

Familial hypercholesterolemia causes abnormally high levels of LDL cholesterol and development of atherosclerosis, but early use of statins is effective. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.