Your last cholesterol panel measured LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. It almost certainly did not measure a particle that roughly one in five people carries at a level tied to elevated cardiovascular risk, and that no amount of diet, exercise, or statin therapy will move.
That is the situation the 2026 ACC/AHA multisociety dyslipidemia guideline set out to change. Released in March, the guideline recommends testing lipoprotein(a) at least once in a lifetime in every adult, the first time a US guideline has called for universal measurement.
