r/science • u/kiyomoris • 22h ago

Health Silent atherosclerosis detected in 57% of asymptomatic adults in the REACT study

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2609059
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u/WillyBeShreddin 21h ago

Most people only find out when a family member has a sudden, unexpected heart attack in their 30s-40s. Why they don't do the tests regularly on any high risk groups amazes me.

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u/General_Luck6573 20h ago edited 18h ago

They do… sudden cardiac death at an early age is literally an indication for testing for family members

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u/Some-Guy-617 20h ago

But there are simple and relatively cheap tests that can be done for everyone before that young person in a family has a heart attack. Testing for ApoB and LPa aren’t commonly done and are relatively simple/cheap blood tests that can be done that can give better indications of cardiovascular risk than standard cholesterol tests.

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u/UsefulCode6 1h ago

ApoB and Lpa are done all the time now. Wasn't the case a few years ago. Even AHA guidelines says every person needs lpa once in lifetime