Atherosclerosis

Diagnosis

Mayo Clinic provides coordinated testing and diagnosis and develops an appropriate treatment program for patients who have a family history of heart attack or stroke, or those who have early onset of heart disease. In addition to assessment for conventional risk factors for heart disease, Mayo Clinic offers these tests:

Advanced blood testing to determine the presence of novel risk factors. Mayo Medical Laboratories in Rochester, the world's largest hospital-based reference laboratory, is one of only three or four laboratories in the country that can process this panel of blood tests.

The novel risk factors include:

• Homocysteine – an amino acid in the blood that, at high levels, may damage the lining of the arterial wall
• Fibrinogen – a protein essential for the blood to coagulate that may increase risk of blood clots in the heart, causing a heart attack, or in the brain, causing a stroke
• Lipoprotein (a) – a unique lipid, or fat, often elevated in people who have a family history of early-onset atherosclerosis
• Small LDL particles – a predominance of small particles of LDL, or "bad," cholesterol that may form plaque on the arteries, causing atherosclerosis more easily than larger LDL particles
• C-reactive protein – a trace protein that is a marker for inflammation and is associated with higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Computed tomography (CT) heart scan to determine the amount of calcium in coronary arteries, a reliable indicator of cholesterol-related plaque. This is generally limited to patients who have a family history of coronary heart disease.