The Complete Solution to Cardiac Risk Assessment
The Complete Solution to Cardiac Risk Assessment
“CVDs are the number 1 cause of death globally: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause”. In 2015, roughly 17.7 million people died from CVD, representing 31% of all global deaths: 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million were due to stroke. (WHO, 2017)
Cardiac health and regular cardiovascular screening is important to enable risk factors to be detected in their earliest stages. There are a few factors which contribute to CVD. These include: smoking, unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption, low physical activity levels. Whilst there are only a few factors contributing to CVD, these can be maintained by the patient through living a healthy lifestyle including: quitting smoking, consuming no more than the recommended allowance of alcohol, cutting out junk food, and exercising for 30 minutes a day, 3 – 5 days a week. In a perfect world, this would be easy and CVD would not be a global problem. However, due to busy lifestyles, cravings, reduced willpower, and convenience, not all individuals in today’s world will be able to avoid CVDs. Therefore, it is vitally important that individuals are tested for CVDs to detect them in the earliest stages to reduce damage, prevent further damage, or even death. Furthermore, many individuals suffer from inherited cardiac risk factors, which stresses the need for accurate testing of both traditional and novel cardiac risk biomarkers.
Randox offer the complete solution to cardiac risk assessment including: RX analysers, traditional and novel reagents, internal quality control (Acusera), and external quality control (RIQAS).
RX Series
Randox has developed the RX series range of clinical chemistry analysers for high-quality semi-automated and fully automated testing. Choose between the RX misano, RX monaco, RX daytona+, RX imola, and the RX modena depending on the throughput of your laboratory. The RX series offers a suitable analyser for your laboratory’s needs. For more information on the Randox RX series, please click here or email therxseries@randox.com
Reagents
As previously mentioned, early assessment of cardiac risk is vital. Randox offer a range of novel risk biomarkers for both very early and the genetic assessment of cardiac risk.
LDL cholesterol is often referred to as the ‘bad cholesterol’. High concentrations of LDL-cholesterol is considered to be the most important clinical predictor, of all single parameters, with respect to coronary atherosclerosis. However, sLDL is a smaller, more dense subfraction of LDL-cholesterol. sLDL particles more readily permeate the inner arterial wall and are more susceptible to oxidation. Individuals with a predominance of sLDL have a 3-fold increased risk of myocardial infarction. Measurement of sLDL allows the clinician to get a more comprehensive picture of lipid risk factors and tailor treatment accordingly.
Elevated levels of Lp(a) are considered to be both a casual risk factor and independent genetic marker of atherosclerotic disorders. The major challenge associated with Lp(a) measurement is the size variation of apo(a) within Lp(a). Dependent upon the size of apo(a) in the assay calibrator, many assays under or overestimate apo(a) size in the patient sample. Numerous commercially available products suffer apo(a) size related bias, resulting in an over estimation of Lp(a) in samples with large apo(a)molecules and an under estimation in samples with small apo(a) molecules. The antibody used in the Randox method detects the complete Lp(a) molecule providing accurate and consistent results. This was proven by the IFCC who developed a gold standard ELISA reference assay and compared 22 commercially available tests. The Randox Lp(a) method displayed the least (minimal) amount of apo(a) size related bias, proving it be a superior offering.
HDL3 Cholesterol is a smaller and more dense subfraction of the HDL particle. HDL is the scavenger of cholesterol within arterial walls and the levels of HDL3 is too low, the ability to remove this cholesterol is reduced. Therefore, it is widely accepted that there is an inverse correlation between HDL3 and CVD risk.
Instrument Specific Applications (ISA’s) are available for a wide range of biochemistry analysers. Contact us to enquire about your specific analyser.
For more information on Randox Reagents, please click here or email reagents@randox.com
Acusera – Internal Quality Control
The Acusera cardiac controls have been designed to cover a wide range of cardiac markers at clinical decision levels, eliminating the extra expense of an additional low level control. The controls are available in a both liquid ready-to-use and lyophilized formats making them ideal for all situations and manufactured from 100% human serum a matrix similar to that of the patient is guaranteed. For more information on the Randox Acusera internal quality control, please click here or email acusera@randox.com
RIQAS – External Quality Control
The RIQAS Liquid Cardiac EQA programme is designed to monitor the performance of up to 9clinically significant cardiac markers including: CK-MB mass, D-dimer, Digoxin, homocysteine, hsCRP, myoglobin, NT proBNP, troponin I, and troponin T. RIQAS is ISO/IEC 17043 accredited and allows the registration of up to five instruments at no extra cost. All samples are 100% human serum and provided in a liquid ready-to-use format for enhanced convenience. Submit your results bi-weekly and view reports online via RIQAS.Net. For more information on RIQAS, the world’s largest international EQA scheme, please click here or email acusera@randox.com
For further information, please contact the Randox PR team via email: randoxpr@randox.com or phone 028 9442 2413
How reliable is BMI?
BMI is commonly used to assess how healthy we are, but how reliable is BMI as a measure of health?
Body Mass Index (BMI) is frequently used to measure health. This involves comparing your weight in relation to your height to give you an indication of your weight status. It will categorise you as being either underweight, overweight, obese or healthy. Although widely used, BMI is often argued to be inaccurate as it doesn’t take into account muscle mass, age, sex, ethnicity and fitness levels. Even with a ‘healthy’ BMI, you could still be at risk of developing illnesses such as heart diseases, cancer and type 2 diabetes.
A more accurate indicator of health is the waist-to-hip ratio, found by dividing waist width by hip width. A wider waist circumference gives you an indication of total body fat as well as the level of visceral fat. Visceral fat is essentially body fat stored within the abdominal cavity; the internal fat that surrounds the organs.
There is a growing body of research which suggests that visceral fat or so-called ‘belly fat’ is the most dangerous type of fat, with it being linked to chronic diseases such as cancers, heart diseases and diabetes-related illnesses. Furthermore, visceral fat levels have even been suggested to predict type 2 diabetes, although this is a warning sign more commonly displayed in women rather than men.
Factors which contribute to increased visceral fat levels include lifestyle habits such as stress and exercise habits; dietary contributors and demographics such as age, ethnicity and even gender.
Presence of a blood analyte (or component) called adiponectin is closely linked with visceral fat levels. An ever-increasing number of clinical studies highlight that lower levels of adiponectin indicate higher levels of visceral fat. Adiponectin levels can be tested to give you an accurate measurement of the level of visceral fat you are carrying.
In short, monitoring visceral fat levels is a much more accurate measure of risk of a number of diseases including cancers, CVD and diabetes than BMI; which does not take into account muscle mass, age, sex, ethnicity and fitness level. A true measure of visceral fat levels can be measured using the adiponectin test, which can be requested from your doctor today!
For health professionals
Adiponectin is an adipokine exclusively secreted by adipocytes which has an important role in a number of metabolic processes such as fatty acid oxidation and glucose regulation.
Randox Adiponectin assay is an automated biochemistry assay for the measurement of adiponectin in serum or plasma, and is available for use on most biochemistry analysers. For more information, please contact us: reagents@randox.com.
