Cardiologist: People are ordering the wrong Lipoprotein a

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]However, so it's great that everyone's ordering lipoprotein A now. However, make sure you are ordering the right one. I'm getting a lot of referrals and patients sent to me now with an A1 or a A-1, a lipoprotein A-1. That is the apolipoprotein that is on HDL's. Each HDL particle has one to maybe five of those. That is not super relevant.

[00:00:24]There's no clinical relevance or importance to A-1 or A1 and it's usually a capital A1. What we need is little a, lipoprotein A either by itself or just lipoprotein small a. That's what we actually need. So, keep ordering it. I'm glad you guys are following the guidelines. I'm glad the guidelines finally recommend this, but please make sure you order the right one. And a lot of times it's not your fault. You order the right one, but the person at the lab putting it in picks the first thing that shows up when they type in lipo A and a lot of times it's that A1 that shows up.