NHLBI Workshop
Lipoprotein (a) and Cardiovascular Disease

Executive Summary

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened a Workshop of investigators on October 31 - November 1, 2002, in Bethesda, Maryland. The objectives of this workshop were three fold: 1) to provide the scientific community with the most recent findings on Lp(a); 2) to present the standardization of LP(a) methods; and 3) to discuss the role of LP(a) in the clinical setting.

Workshop participants recommended that the NHLBI:

1. Continue the standardization efforts that have been undertaken by the NHLBI such as validation of the accuracy of the analytical methods, utilization of the primary and secondary reference materials developed and validated under the NHLBI LP(a) contract and pursue a common approach to express LP(a) values in all studies.
2. Promote more basic research to understand the fundamental functions and mechanism of actions of LP(a) as well as the mechanisms of LP(a) lowering.
3. Encourage the development of animal models to study LP(a).
4. Support large clinical and epidemiological studies, performed with validated analytical methods and sound study design to establish the clinical relevance and the predictive power of LP(a).
5. Establish common population-based reference values and LP(a) values for clinical decision.
6. Design and implement a clinical study to evaluate the clinical usefulness of lowering LP(a) levels.

Working Group Members

• John J. Albers, PhD. Northwest Lipid Research Laboratories, University of Washington, Seattle
• Kåre Berg, MD, Ullevaal University Hospital, Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo, Norway
• Celina Edelstein, BA, The University of Chicago, Lipoprotein Study Unit, Chicago
• Jianglin Fan, MD, PhD, Chief of Laboratory and Cardiovascular Diseases, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
• Scott M. Grundy, MD, PhD, Center for Human Nutrition, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
• Helen Hobbs, MD, Departments of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
• William B. Kannel, MD, MPH, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston
• Marlys L. Koschinsky, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
• Gerhard M. Kostner, PhD, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, University of Graz, Austria
• Peter Kwiterovich, MD, Lipid Research Atherosclerosis Division, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore
• Santica Marcovina, PhD, ScD, Northwest Lipid Research Laboratories, University of Washington, Seattle
• Sally P. A. McCormick, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
• Joel D. Morrisett, PhD, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, Houston
• Daniel J. Rader, MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
• Edward Rubin, MD, Genome Sciences Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley
• Frank M. Sacks, MD, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston
• Ernst Schaefer, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine, New England Medical Center Lipid Metabolism Laboratory, Boston
• Armin Steinmetz, MD, St. Nikolaus Stiftshospital GmbH, Teaching Hospital University of Bonn, Andernach, Germany
• Gerd Utermann, MD, Institute for Medical Biology and Genetics, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• Arnold von Eckardstein, MD, Institute of Clinical Chemistry, University and University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland