Cost: 148,400 won (NHI cost: ~93,000 won)

Seeing the Bigger Picture for Heart Health

The Cardio Check Profile is an advanced blood assessment of lipids and cardiometabolic analytes providing insight regarding independent risk. Combining the best of conventional and functional laboratory biomarkers, the profile evaluates cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as targeted apolipoproteins, important ratios, high sensitivity CRP, and homocysteine.

What advantage does the Cardio Check offer compared to other diagnostics?

The standard lipid panel is often the only laboratory markers a clinician will order to assess cardiovascular risk. However, an earlier article published in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that,

although hypercholesterolemia is important in approximately 50 percent of patients with cardiovascular disease, other factors need to be taken into consideration. Atherosclerosis is clearly an inflammatory disease and does not result simply from the accumulation of lipids.

The Cardio Check Biomarkers

The biomarkers on the Cardio Check are arranged as follows:

Lipids	LDL-C (low density lipoprotein) is the form of cholesterol that can deposit in plaques ("bad cholesterol") and is the primary target of cholesterol-lowering therapy HDL-C (high density lipoprotein) promotes reverse cholesterol transport, carrying LDL cholesterol away from the arteries and back to the liver to be excreted as bile ("good cholesterol") Triglycerides (TG) are the most common type of fat in the body and store excess energy from the diet - well-established marker of CVD risk Total Cholesterol (TC) includes LDL, VLDL, and HDL cholesterol and levels correlate with atherosclerotic CVD
Lipid Ratios	Lipid Ratios : Multiple epidemiological studies have shown that lipoprotein ratios have a greater correlation with CVD and are better predictors than individual lipid measurements TC/HDL Ratio predicts the formation of coronary plaques and coronary heart disease; the higher the ratio, the greater the risk for developing atherosclerosis TG/HDL Ratio has been shown to predict both metabolic and cardiovascular risk and is associated with insulin resistance
Apolipoproteins	Apo A-1 is the main structural component of HDL and assists in reverse cholesterol transport (HDL is "good cholesterol") Apo B is the main component of atherogenic lipoprotein particles, i.e. LDL, Lp(a), and others (LDL is "bad cholesterol"); Apo B is a stronger indicator of atherogenicity than LDL-C alone Apo B/Apo A-1 Ratio has been shown in multiple studies to have a higher predictive ability for metabolic syndrome, CVD, obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, MI, and early atherosclerosis as compared to standard lipid evaluations Lp(a) is a type of lipoprotein that is primarily genetically determined and causes damage via inflammation and oxidative stress
Cardiometabolic Markers	hsCRP is an inflammatory marker Homocysteine is part of the methylation pathway and is toxic to the endothelium contributing to damage and atherosclerosis