Preventive Cardiology and Lipid Program

Board-certified experts in cardiology and clinical lipidology

Cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke, are the leading causes of death in the United States.  It is estimated that more than 80 million Americans carry a diagnosis of heart disease. There have been remarkable advances in the field of cardiology over the last several decades to treat heart disease, including treatments such as balloon angioplasty, stenting, catheter ablation, device implantation and medical management.

Despite these advances, there still remains a very high residual risk of having a cardiac event, with more than 400,000 people each year dying from cardiac-related disorders. While coronary artery disease takes a lifetime to develop, many of the current therapies are started late in life only after cardiac events have occurred or heart disease has been diagnosed.

The Preventive Cardiology and Lipid Program at Loyola aims to prevent the onset or recurrence of heart disease by identifying and aggressively treating cardiovascular risk factors. The program's multidisciplinary staff of physicians, nurses, and other allied health professionals committed to providing leading-edge care in prevention of heart disease.

Our program provides a comprehensive and detailed cardiac risk assessment and treatment of patients with a number of cardiovascular risk factors, including:

• Abnormal cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Family history of early heart disease
• Metabolic syndrome or diabetes
• Obesity
• Smoking history

Patients will receive an individualized treatment plan tailored to their risk profile and may include recommendations on lifestyle interventions and medications targeted at optimizing risk factors.  Special program services will include:

• Advanced lipid testing and novel serum cardiac risk biomarkers
• Non-invasive imaging of plaque build-up (atherosclerosis)
• Referrals for cardiovascular genetic testing
• Counseling and education on heart healthy lifestyle
• Referrals to cardiac rehabilitation
• Therapeutic plasma exchange

Our cardiologists have special expertise in preventive cardiology and are board-certified in the field of lipidology and advanced cholesterol management by the American Board of Clinical Lipidology.  In addition, we are one of the few centers in Chicago area to offer plasmapheresis for patients who cannot be treated for high lipid levels through medical management or lifestyle modification.