World Heart Day – Raising awareness of Cardiovascular Diseases

World Heart Day was established by the World Heart Federation in collaboration with the World Health Organization to raise awareness of cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world’s number one killer, causing over 18.6 million deaths per year, according to the World Heart Federation. 85% of these deaths are due to coronary heart diseases (e.g. heart attacks) and cerebrovascular diseases (e.g. strokes) and mostly affect low-and middle-income countries.

What are cardiovascular diseases?

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders relating to the heart and blood vessels and they include:

• coronary heart disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle
• cerebrovascular disease – disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain
• peripheral arterial disease – disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs
• rheumatic heart disease – damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria
• congenital heart disease – malformations of heart structure existing at birth
• deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism – blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs

How can Randox help with these current global challenges

Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, is easier to treat when detected early. Here at Randox, we utilise innovative diagnostic tests for early risk assessment capable of diagnosing disease at the earliest possible stages, because we understand that “prevention is better than cure”.

Randox Laboratories is a world leader in innovative diagnostics with 40 years’ experience and a leading provider of diagnostic reagents for the assessment of cardiovascular disease risk. Randox offer an extensive menu of cardiac biomarkers within the cardiology reagents panel including:

Risk Assessment

• CK-MB – useful in patients with chest pain; Creatine Kinase is an enzyme produced in many different types of cells, of which high levels indicate muscle trauma or damage.
• Myoglobin – a small protein which leaks out of muscle cells after injury, is also considered a biomarker for the detection of Myocardinal Infraction.
• Routine lipid tests to determine the patient’s cholesterol and triglyceride levels – HDL Cholesterol, LDL Cholesterol, Total Cholesterol and Triglycerides
• Independent risk assessment tests such as sdLDL Cholesterol and Lipoprotein(a) to determine any genetic factors which may increase their risk of CVD. Please note, this is necessary even for patients who have good cholesterol levels
• Secondary tests, such as High Sensitivity CRP, in addition to risk assessment markers and lipid evaluation – secondary tests are important in predicting future cardiac events of individuals with no previous history of CVD and those deemed healthy because of primary tests; approximately half of all heart attacks occur in patients classified as low risk. In addition, they can also be used to evaluate the risk of a recurrent cardiac event
• Homocysteine – elevated levels of homocysteine have been linked to various disease states including CVD. Extremely high levels are found in patients with homocystinuria, of which many suffer from early arteriosclerosis.

More information

If you are a clinician or lab interested in our Cardiology & Lipids Panel, we have a wealth of resources available:

Download our Reagents Brochure 

Download our Cardiology & Lipid Testing Brochure

If you would like to get in touch with a Sales representative please email us reagents@randox.com