Screening Of Young Adults For Heart Disease Suggested

US experts are suggesting screening of young adults for heart disease risk. At the moment many go without a screening for various reasons, and they might have to pay a heavy price later in life. In a study published in the July-August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, Dr. Elena Kuklina and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined data from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a national survey that includes interviews and physical examinations, to see how frequently young adults were getting screened for  low-density lipoprotein (LDL)  cholesterol, also known as the bad cholesterol.

Of the 2,587 young adults in the study — men 20 to 35 years old and women 20 to 45 — fewer than 50% had been screened. Yet 59% of them had heart disease or related conditions such as diabetes or at least one risk factor for heart disease (such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking or a family history of heart disease before age 50).

The study also reported that 65% of young adults with heart disease or related conditions had unhealthily high LDL cholesterol levels, as did 26% of those with two or more risk factors, 12% of with one risk factor and 7% with no risk factors.

"This is a big problem," said Kuklina, a fellow at the CDC's division of heart disease and stroke prevention. "Heart disease and risk factors are common in young adults, and yet screening rates are low."

It turns out that doctors themselves don't know what to do about the screening issue because two different guidelines exist for screening adults for cholesterol. "Doctors are confused about which guideline to follow, and insurance companies may not cover screenings depending on what guidelines they follow," Kuklina said.

The American Heart Association  and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute  recommend screening young adults, regardless of risk level, every five years once they turn 20.

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But the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, recommends screening all men 35 and older and all women 45 and older. It recommends earlier screening only if a person already has heart disease or at least one risk factor.

"When the guidelines were first written, there weren't many studies about young adults because it wasn't known that it is a cumulative problem," Kuklina said. Now, she adds, doctors also know that blood cholesterol levels are influenced by growth and hormone changes, which means that older teens and young adults should be screened more often so as to track blood cholesterol changes.

A study published Aug. 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that consistently high levels of LDL cholesterol levels throughout early adulthood can lead to later development of heart disease. Using 35 years of data from 3,258 patients surveyed in a study known as CARDIA that began in the mid-1980s, UC San Francisco researchers found that participants who had consistently high levels of LDL cholesterol were 51/2 times more likely to have a buildup of calcium in their coronary arteries (an early risk factor of heart disease) than those who maintained lower levels of LDL cholesterol.

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"Young people don't pay much attention to their health," said study lead author Dr. Mark Pletcher, an associate professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco. They need to realize that "keeping your cholesterol levels down will lower your heart disease risk later."

The government's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is currently preparing new guidelines, the Pediatric Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Initiative, which will be released later this year. Urbina, who is involved in crafting them, said that they too will make broader screening recommendations that take into account risk factors other than family history.

The guidelines will also address, for the first time, when to screen 18- to 21-year-olds, an age group that has previously been under-screened because of a lack of consensus about their status as adults or children.


Source-Medindia