Lipid Luminations

Speaking with host Dr. Alan Brown on the state of genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is Dr. Joshua W. Knowles, MD, PhD, Instructor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University and Attending Physician of the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Clinic.

Dr. Alan Brown is joined by Dr. Bart Duell, director of the Lipid Disorders Clinic at the Oregon Health and Sciences University and one of the top winners in the NLA Abstracts program, to discuss research updates in Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH).

Postprandial hypertriglyceridemia occurs when the rapid absorption of dietary fat (in the form of chylomicron triglycerides) overwhelms the body's ability to clear plasma triglyceride. In its most severe form, postprandial hypertriglyceridemia can lead to chylomicronemia and a greatly increased risk of acute, life-threatening pancreatitis. Joining host Dr. Alan Brown to talk about this condition and a trial drug treatment in research and development is Dr. Dan Meyers, one of the top winners in the Abstracts Program of the National Lipid Association's Annual Scientific Sessions. Dr. Meyers is currently a Translational Medicine Expert with Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, MA. While at NIBR, he has designed and executed first-in-human, proof of concept, and mechanistic studies with novel compounds intended for the treatment of dyslipidemia, diabetes and related metabolic disease.

Dr. Alan Brown is joined by Dr. Thomas Dayspring, Director of Cardiovascular Education for the Foundation for Health Improvement and Technology in Richmond, VA and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the UMDNJ - NJ Medical School. He is also a Fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the National Lipid Association. The two discuss Dr. Dayspring's research on discordances between LDL-P and ApoB, two biomarkers that are otherwise thought to correlate well with one another.

Dr. Alan Brown welcomes Dr. Daniel J. Rader, Cooper-McLure Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Chief of the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their discussion focuses on the clinical diagnosis, genetic complexity and prevalence of HoFH while exploring the current and novel modalities available to help HoFH patients achieve their LDL goals.

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Dr. Harold Bays, Chair for the National Lipid Association's expert panel on Adiposity, Obesity, and Dyslipidemia, discusses with host Dr. Alan Brown the panel's consensus statement published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology.

Obesity is associated with systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, the leading steps towards development of atherosclerosis. Myloperoxidase (MPO) mediated oxidative damage of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) leads to a dysfunctional HDL which likely becomes pro-atherogenic. But, what happens in our adolescent patients? Monica Marin, MD, pediatric endocrinology fellow at the University of Oklahome Health Sciences Center and winner of the NLA Young Investigator Award, investigated the cardiovascular risk factors that are present in childhood and the importance of understanding the impact of oxidized HDL.

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Joining Dr. Alan Brown is Revathi Balakrishnan, MD, MPH, a general cardiology fellow at NYU and winner of the NLA Young Investigator Competition. Dr. Balakrishnan's research, titled "Prevalence of unrecognized prediabetes, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in patients undergoing non-urgent PCI," found that nearly 1 out of every 10 patients admitted to the NYU cardiac catheterization lab had diabetic hemoglobin A1c levels (6.5 and over) without a prior diagnosis of diabetes. An even larger proportion had prediabetes (57%) and metabolic syndrome (54%). Put another way, only 30% of the patients undergoing PCI had a normal glycemic status on admission. Drs. Balakrishnan and Brown reflect on these concerning results and discuss the need for a call to action among preventive cardiologists.

There may be something unique about the avocado, far beyond its monosaturated fat content. Li Wang, graduate student at Penn State University and winner of the NLA Young Investigator Award, investigated this notion with a clinical study monitoring the effects of eating one avocado every day on risk factors for cardiovascular disease compared to a similar moderate fat diet without avocados, an average American diet, and a low-fat diet. Tune in for this discussion revealing her thought-provoking findings.

Host Dr. Alan Brown is joined by David Tehrani, MS, a medical student at the University of California - Irvine School of Medicine and winner of the NLA's Young Investigator Competition for his research into the negative impact of inflammation on HDL's known cardioprotective effects. Tune in for new understandings on HDL and the inflammatory biomarkers attenuating its protective functions.