During American Heart Month, Let’s Recommit to Cardiovascular Health

February is American Heart Month, a good time to remind ourselves of the ongoing threat posed by heart and vascular disease. Each year some 805,000 Americans experience a heart attack – that works out to roughly one every 40 seconds. One-fifth of these are silent, meaning they can cause damage without the victim even being aware of having experienced a heart attack. Cardiovascular disease imposes an especially heavy burden on non-Hispanic Black Americans, approximately 60 percent of whom have some form of the disease.

The economic burden of cardiovascular disease is similarly high. It accounts for almost 12 percent of total U.S. healthcare spending, and between 2015 and 2018 its total direct and indirect costs added up to nearly $380 billion.

A key risk factor for heart disease is high blood cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein or LDL is the most common kind of bad cholesterol, yet only one in 20 Americans who could benefit from intensive LDL-lowering therapy is receiving it, and just one-fifth of all patients on statins are reaching their target LDL levels.?

These sobering realities make it especially important for physicians to understand and apply the latest clinical guidelines and recommendations on LDL-C management. Issued last year, the American College of Cardiology’s Expert Consensus Decision Pathway (ECDP) on non-statin cholesterol management lowered the recommended LDL threshold for patients with very high risk atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease to just 55 mg/dL. The ECDP also highlighted the importance of non-statin lipid lowering therapies when patients cannot meet their target LDL-C thresholds with statins alone. ?

Lipoprotein(a) – or Lp(a) for short – is another type of bad cholesterol that, unlike LDL cholesterol, is genetically determined and cannot be modified by diet or exercise. What’s more, most people have no idea whether they have high levels of lipoprotein(a) or not, despite estimates that as much as 20 percent of the population may be at risk. Elevated Lp(a) levels may increase one’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Lp(a) levels in Blacks have been shown to be higher on average than in whites.

To improve understanding of the connection between Lp(a) levels and cardiovascular disease in Black Americans, Amgen recently announced the launch of our new African American Heart Study, in collaboration with the Association of Black Cardiologists and the Morehouse School of Medicine . This study will measure the correlation of Lp(a) with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in 5,000 self-identified African American participants nationwide, and it will help fill a knowledge gap on Lp(a) among Black Americans, who have historically been underrepresented in clinical research. ?You can read more about this important collaboration here .

Amgen is all-in on the fight against heart disease, first and foremost through our innovative medicines, but also through our partnership with organizations like the Association of Black Cardiologists, the American Heart Association , Family Heart , WomenHeart , and the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association , all of which seek to educate people about the dangers of heart disease and empower them to advocate for their own care. We are also working with medical associations nationwide to help prescribers understand the importance of the latest treatment guidelines and recommendations.

During this American Heart Month, let’s rededicate ourselves to promoting heart health for everyone. ?

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