WELCOME to the The Lipid Center of Virginia
The Lipid Center of Virginia was created to assist referring providers in caring for their patients with difficult to treat lipid disorders and those at high risk for cardiovascular events. Primary care and specialty provider referrals, as well as self-referrals are accepted. Our emphasis is to work with men, women and children of all ages to provide advanced testing and diagnostic evaluations to help reduce cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, and symptomatic peripheral vascular disease).
The Lipid Center of Virginia (TLC) offers state of the art imaging, diagnostic and laboratory testing for each patient in order to develop a truly individualized risk assessment. A logical, evidence-based, and easy to implement approach will be provided to each patient based on the risk assessment results. For those patients that have already had an event, we are committed to reducing or eliminating the risk for future events.
TLC:
- specializes in heart attack and stroke prevention, offering a wide range of services that focus on cardiovascular risk assessment and treatment.
- concentrates on optimizing your blood lipid and lipoprotein levels as well as correcting important risk factors/markers such as inflammation, insulin resistance, hypertension and obesity.
- utilizes advanced technologies to detect early stage atherosclerosis.
BEYOND CHOLESTEROL
The standard cholesterol test (also known as a "lipid profile") that has been done for the past 50 years has served us well as an easy test to perform. While it can detect quite a few patients who are at high risk for artery disease, it unfortunately misses a large percentage of people. In fact, 50% of people who present to the hospital with a heart attack have "normal" LDL cholesterol levels!1 These are people who had no idea they were at high risk for an event. Fortunately today we have newer and more accurate ways of detecting people at risk for heart attacks and strokes.
Advanced blood tests and state-of-the-art imaging studies are offered at CALM that can better predict risk of future heart attacks and strokes compared to standard lipid profiles that just look at cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides.
1. Blood tests
- Lipoprotein analysis by NMR technology
- Cardiovascular biomarkers including genetic and inflammatory markers
- Cholesterol absorption and synthesis markers
- Omega-3 index testing
2. Imaging Studies
- CIMT– Carotid Intima Medial Thickness is an ultrasound that measures the thickness of your arterial lining. This also detects hard and soft plaque. Based on the results of this test, vascular age can be predicted. It is a safe, non-invasive examination that involves no radiation.
- CACS – Coronary Artery Calcium Score: This test is a CT scan that records images of your heart blood vessels and calculates the amount of calcium embedded in the arteries. The higher the amount of calcium, the higher your future risk. This test involves a small amount of radiation.
1Sachdeva et. al., American Heart Journal Volume 157, Issue 1 , Pages 111-117.e2, January 2009. Lipid levels in patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease: An analysis of 136,905 hospitalizations in Get With The Guidelines
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