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On the occasion of the Lp(a) Awareness Day we wish to address with you an important cardiovascular disease risk factor and call for steps which can reduce the disease burden.
Every year, on 24 March we observe the international Lp(a) Awareness Day. Elevated lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) concentration, is an inherited lipid condition and an independent, very significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While elevated Lp(a) levels can be diagnosed through a simple blood test, it is estimated that one in five people have elevated Lp(a) concentrations, significantly increasing their risk for heart attacks and strokes, even at a young age.
Alarmingly, only 1% of the population in middle- and high-income countries have had an Lp(a) measurement and most of those with elevated concentrations are not informed about their increased risk of experiencing a first or recurrent cardiovascular event. There is very little public awareness about this common inherited risk factor, and there is also limited awareness and knowledge among general practitioners (GPs) and the wider healthcare professionals' community.
This presents a crucial missed opportunity for CVD prevention, early detection, the avoidance of costly treatment, care and hospital admissions impacting on the already stretched health systems and the significant burden to individuals and their families across their life course, following a CVD episode.
Given the gravity of elevated Lp(a), FH Europe Foundation set up a dedicated Lp(a) International Task Force in 2023, to develop and implement a five year strategy to address major gaps in policy, awareness, understanding of cost-effectiveness, personalised prevention approaches, and the role of digitalisation and data in encouraging a more comprehensive approach to systematic testing of populations. Professor Florian Kronenberg, Chair of the Int. Lp(a) Task Force said “This Task Force is unique as it is composed of Lp(a) experts and experts from other disciplines from across the globe, to focus on making Lp(a) testing the norm and managing this alongside other risk factors”.
Emma Print, FH Europe Foundation’s Community Engagement Manager has been coordinating activities around the Lp(a) Awareness Day. She said “As a person living with Lp(a) and FH, I am grateful that I was diagnosed relatively early – but I met formidable barriers in the process. I now have the privilege of working with the FH Europe Foundation and to help raise awareness among as many people as possible, today – and indeed all days. We work with Lp(a) Ambassadors, who have the lived experience and knowledge, to share their powerful stories, like the one of Marc’s”.
This year we really wanted to support the community by providing them with the opportunity to “Ask Me Anything About Lp(a)”. Through our social media and email campaign we encouraged members of the public to complete an online form enabling them to ask any question about Lp(a) to our international panel of experts which included researchers, clinicians and people living with elevated Lp(a). The response was tremendous and culminated in a webinar on Thursday 21st March where our experts answered as many of the questions as possible.
The FH Europe Foundation is committed to building awareness- year on year- among the public and physicians on the importance of measuring for Lp(a). A particular feature this year, however, is an Open Letter from the International Task Force to policymakers and, setting it in the context of the wider burden of cardiovascular disease and the urgent need to ‘prevent the preventable’. Magdalena Daccord, FH Europe Foundation CEO said “We are deeply concerned that elevated Lp(a) is largely invisible in the health policy space, and we need to change that. With the International Task Force, we are creating an unprecedented momentum to finally get this on the political radar”.
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