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Comment by boothead | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I'm aware of this and it's pretty scary! That's why I'm certainly not ruling out the drugs. What I want to do it figure out if I do have any damage with a CIMT test. If that shows I'm taking damage then it's a done deal, but If I can change my LDL through diet I think I owe myself a couple of months at least to try.

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I'm not that familiar with the CIMT test, but by quick glance it only tells whether your carotid artery is affected. A negative result won't tell you whether the rest of your arteries - such as the coronary arteries - are affected.

But I'm a bit curious: Who referred you to a test like this in your condition?

Nobody did, I just phoned my GP and asked him if he could, but he said that's a question I'd have to put to the specialist. My reasoning was that I want to assess whether I already have arterial damage or not, as that will have a significant bearing on how I asses my risk of not taking statins.

Regarding your earlier question, my LDL was 7.8 mmol/l and total serum cholesterol was 10.3 mmol/L (I make that and 301 and 398 in US money)

About assessing the risk of not taking statins: As I said, the exam you're about to take is only able to give you positive answer (yes, your carotid is sclerotic), not negative (won't say: no, your coronaries or the rest of your arteries are not sclerotic), so it's sort of useless.

What I'm still wondering is how a familial hypercholesterolemy would have been missed during earlier blood tests? It's a pretty standard test here, and 7.8 and 10.3 are extremely high for a fit person.

Interesting point on the CIMT test, I hadn't considered that. I'm not sure I've ever had a cholesterol test before, so that might be why it wasn't picked up. :-)

My GP seems to be saying the because I'm fit and healthy, there's no other possible diagnosis than FH given the high numbers. I was kind of hoping for a bit more investigation and perhaps some corroboration. I'm not sure what form that should take though - genetic screen perhaps?

Probably there is no other possible diagnosis if your thyroid is ok. You can go do tests, but also the treatment probably remains the same (statins, etc.).

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