preventing early cardiac death

[glorya0621]

My son is 33 years old being treated for familial hyper lipidemia with statin meds since he was 19 yo. Despite 40 mg of mevacor daily his LDLs are 250 and his HDLs are 32. He is normal weight, 34 inch waist, non smoker and daily exerciser. His father had a sudden death heart attack at age 46 and his paternal grand father died the same way at age 37. What diagnostic test would be best to evaluate his coronary arteries. He has already had stress tests and echocardiograms that are normal.

[ed34]

If you want to know the condition of the actual coronary arteries, then the only true way is an angiogram. In 2007 I had an emergency stent placed, and it was seen how my left artery was totally blocked, probably had been for years and I was 46. Now, a month after that, I had a nuclear scan. This looked fantastic and my cardiologist said if the nuclear scan was done first, then he wouldn't want to see me again. The reason? because I had formed collateral vessels to feed the deficit areas. So a nuclear scan can make things appear normal, but in reality the arteries could be a major mess. The best way to know for sure is to get inside the arteries and look.

[jrbon]

Is he been treated by a Lipid Specialist ? It seems a too simple treatment for those levels.

Unless that his father suffered a Heart Attack, SD normally it is not caused by  lipids.

If there is not inflamation, the risk for heart attack is reduced. Check value of sC-RP and tumoral factors.

Jesus

[erijon]

Was his stress test a nuclear stress test? If not, that may be a good place to start. It will show any areas where blood flow is diminished in his heart and will find CAD 97% when it is present.

Jon