Advances in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders (ACCD)

Open Access Journal

Volume : 1 | Issue : 1

Proceeding

Cascade screening for awareness and detection of familial hypercholesterolemia

Shashikant Gupta, Shally Saini, N Arul Jothi, A Devi

Cardiovascular Genetics Group, Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai, India

Received: November 10, 2017 | Published: : November 14, 2017

Correspondence: Shashikant Gupta, Cardiovascular Genetics Group, Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai 603203, India, Email shashikant.genetics@gmail.com

Copyright© 2017 Gupta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Proceeding

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an inherited autosomal genetic disorder characterized by severe, lifelong elevations in level of plasma cholesterol associated with low density lipoprotein (LDL) and hence, increases the risk of early-onset atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease (CAD). It has worldwide prevalence of 1:300 to 1:500. FH is treatable when identified, yet is vastly under-recognized and undertreated. Within India, low FH detection rate may be due to lack of national wide diagnostic criteria which may be contributing to a lack of uniform diagnostic practices. Cascade screening is an intervention to reduce burden of early onset heart diseases. It helps to increase FH awareness, characterize trends in earlier treatment and ultimately prevention of CHD events. CASCADE-FH is a unique partnership between FH patients, FH Foundation, clinical researchers and cardiologists to raise awareness of the need for improved diagnosis and treatment of FH in contemporary practice.