Feeling confused!

[cardamom]

After hearing in a podcast about LP(a), I decided to get tested for it in view of a family history of aortic stenosis. The results of the test show that I do indeed have higher LP(a): 127nmol/L. The LDL Cholesterol is 3.5 nmol/L which is a red flag. However, all the other results are flagged green: ApoA1 is 1.71 g/L, the ApoB is 1.00 g/L, the ratio of Total Cholesterol:HDL is 2.99, the non-HDL cholesterol is 3.9 nmol/L, HLD is 2.0 nmol/L, and the CRP HS (which I think measures inflammation) is 0.71 mg/L. I'm struggling to understand why, if ApoB is normal, what is elevating the total LDL score - is it the LP(a)? And since statins don't bring down LP(a) - and may in fact increase it - it is useful to me to take a statin? What would it lower? Thank-you in advance for any information you can offer.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

With respect, you need to clean up the units you are using, since that may be adding to your confusion. First, to the best of my knowledge, lipid concentrations are normally measured either as mmol/l (UK) - not nmol/l which are different - or mg/dl (US), and next it is convention to have the same units throughout any one piece of text, whether in one or the other set of units.

Next this forum is mostly frequented by non medically qualified lay-people, including me, although there are a few health professionals who come along from time to time and you might be lucky enough to have one give you their opinion on your question. Nonetheless it looks to be a very specialist area of lipid science, and outside the normal discussion on here regarding lipids/cholesterol, so my suggestion is you seek a consultation with a lipid clinic specialist who will be able to best interpret your test results and perhaps offer a suggested course of action for yourself, although you may have to pay for that.

[cardamom in reply to Lowerfield_no_more]

Thank-you for your reply and sorry for the confusion. You're correct that the main cholesterol measurements for HDL and LDL should be in mmol/L and not nmol/L for which I apologise. (The other measurements are as stated in the same laboratory report and are correct). I completely take your point that this is a lay persons' forum and my question about lp(a) and its significance may be inappropriate here. One in five of us apparently has a raised lp(a) level but not many of us know it, so it might swim more into focus in the future.