Which blood tests matter most for heart risk?
Dr Ravi Assomull describes the key blood tests used to assess cardiovascular risk. In this video, he explains the importance of cholesterol, metabolic markers and advanced biomarkers, alongside imaging, for a complete heart health assessment.
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Transcript
Blood tests are a really important part of any assessment, including heart risks. And typically, our standard panel of blood tests will include your lipid levels. That includes your cholesterol, which is broken down into your good cholesterol, your bad cholesterol, and your triglycerides.
We complement this with other factors that can be affected or show signs of potential underlying metabolic dysfunctions. So your liver function tests, your kidney function tests, your thyroid function. More recently, we started to incorporate advanced biomarkers, things like lipoprotein A, apolipoprotein A, and apolipoprotein B.
However, it's important to say that blood tests aren't the be-all and end-all. You can have a normal set of blood tests or a very abnormal set of blood tests. But we have to put that in context with your clinical history, your family history, and supplement that with cardiac scans.
And specifically, things like a CT coronary angiogram, which actually shows whether you've got any underlying plaque.
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