What does a blood marker called lipoprotein A have to do with your risk for cardiovascular disease? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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When it comes to assessing your cardiovascular risk, your blood tells an eloquent story. It’s not just cholesterol but several other factors that can be detected and measured that point toward or away from risk. Roger Blumenthal, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins and one author of new cholesterol guidelines from the American College of Cardiology, says one relative newcomer is lipoprotein a. 

Blumenthal: Lipoprotein little a is a genetic factor that should be checked really in all individuals. We felt a high score like 250 what's called millimoles per liter is associated with about a doubling of a person's estimated risk. So if a person knows that they have a high LPA hopefully that'll motivate them to do an even better job with their lifestyle habits and if they can't get to the desirable cholesterol levels then the clinician they should give serious consideration to lowering that LDL cholesterol more.           :32

Blumenthal notes that blood tests are widely available and repeatable, to keep an eye on progress. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.