From the office of Robert S. Grimshaw Jr MD FACP Internal Medicine 3535 Hill Blvd Yorktown Hts NY 914 962-3180 NEWS

23

Advanced Cardiovascular
Diagnostic Tests:
(or How to Avoid a Heart Attack)
Berkeley HeartLab:
Our office is proud to offer “next generation” blood testing for helping prevent and treat heart disease.  The Berkeley HeartLab offers tests developed by Drs. Ronald M. Krauss and H. Robert Superko at the famed Lawrence Orlando Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley.  
These go beyond the usual “lipid panel.”  Those tests are total cholesterol, triglycerides (2 ‘fat’ chemicals in the blood) and the “good” or high density lipoprotein (HDL), as well as the “lousy” or low density lipoprotein (LDL).



The Berkeley tests include the pattern of the LDL: small, dense dangerous pattern B, or less risky pattern A.  They also help tell what trait you might have inherit-ed, which can help your brothers, sisters or children.  At least 80% of heart and artery problems are inherited.  If you’ve got one of these, there’s a 50% chance you’ll pass it to your kids.
Your child may have your chin and your spouse’s eyes -- you can see that.  But you won’t know about their heart risk unless you get checked.

Who Needs These Tests?  YOU Do If:

<    You’ve had a heart attack,

stroke, aneurysm or signs of clog-ged arteries in the heart (“angina”) or in the legs (“claudication”).  

<    Someone in your family

has had a heart attack or angina.

<    You’ve got diabetes or

another sugar problem and your cholesterol picture is not perfect.

<    You’ve got two or more

risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure, smoking, inactivity, “high powered” type A personality,  high triglycerides or low HDL.

What Will We Do With The Results?
We hope to keep you from having a heart attack!
Using these tests at Stanford,  Dr. Superko’s group was able to reduce future heart events by 43% over 4 years!  Now a study of patients who had heart attacks in Tyler, Texas shows that individualized therapy guided by these tests saves money: some $4120 per patient was saved in one year over standard care!  That savings reflects better lives: less hospitalizations, less surgery, less angioplasty.  Other studies have shown that you can “unclog” arteries with targeted therapy.

We’ve Launched an Intensive Effort to accomplish this.  We can arrange for the studies with Berkeley.  We will provide appropriate nutritional counseling (diets are different for different problems, and in some cases, a very low fat diet can make things worse!) with sophisticated computer support.

BHL Testing Requires Careful Preparation: a 12-14 hour fast is required, a questionnaire must be completed, and we have to know ahead of time in order to arrange for special handling in our office and FedEx.  

How Much Will it Cost? The  Advanced Cardiovascular panel is $375.  Medicare covers some of this. Otherwise, please be prepared to pay for this in advance, as many insurances have not yet decided on coverage.  We think you’re worth the investment!
Our dietician’s and our services are covered under Medicare and most insurance.