title: Incidence of elevated lipoprotein (a) levels in a large cohort of patients with cardiovascular disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently it has been demonstrated that elevated lipoprotein (a) (LPA) levels are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease across multiple ethnic groups. However, there is only scanty data about the incidence of elevated LPA levels in different patient cohorts. As a consequence, we aimed to examine whether patients with elevated LPA levels might be seen more often in a cardiovascular center in comparison to the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed LPA concentrations of 52,898 consecutive patients who were admitted to our hospital between January 2004 and December 2014. We subdivided them into different groups according to their LPA levels. Data was compared to available information in medical literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  26.4% of the patients had LPA levels >30 mg/dl which is in line with the data from literature. Mean level of LPA concentration in our study was twice as high in comparison to the general population (25.8% vs. 13.3%). 4.6% had LPA levels >98 mg/dl (general population <0.3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients admitted to a cardiovascular center the proportion of LPA >30 mg/dl is comparable to the general population but mean levels over all are twice as high and the proportion of patients with LPA levels of >98 mg/dl is extremely higher.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Cardiology, Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Georgstr. 11, 32545, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. fvbuuren@hdz-nrw.de.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Buuren
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Cardiology, Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Georgstr. 11, 32545, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horstkotte
authors.affiliation: Insitute for Laboratory and Transfusion Medicine, Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
authors.forename: Cornelius
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Knabbe
authors.affiliation: Insitute for Laboratory and Transfusion Medicine, Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hinse
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Cardiology, Herz- und Diabeteszentrum NRW, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Georgstr. 11, 32545, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Mellwig
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006951:Hyperlipoproteinemias / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015994:Incidence; D017270:Lipoprotein(a) / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D017270:Lipoprotein(a)
keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Cholesterol; Epidemiology; Lipoprotein (a); Risk stratifcation