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A Simple Blood Test Predicts a Person's Heart Disease Risk 30 Years Out, Study Finds

An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from NBC News: A new approach to a routine blood test could predict a person's 30-year risk of heart disease, research published Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine found. But limiting blood testing to just cholesterol misses important — and usually silent — risk factors, experts say... Lead study author Dr. Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and his team found that in addition to LDL cholesterol, two other markers — a type of fat in the blood called lipoprotein (a), or Lp(a), and an indicator of inflammation — are important predictors of a person's risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease... About 13% — roughly 3,600 participants — had either a heart attack or stroke, had surgery to fix a narrowed or blocked artery, or died from heart disease over the 30-year follow-up period... All of the women had blood tests done at the beginning of the study to measure their LDL cholesterol, Lp(a) and C-reactive protein levels, a marker of inflammation in the body.

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