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Lipoprotein(a) and coronary disease—moving closer to causality

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 6, pages 565–567 (2009)Cite this article

Lipoprotein(a) has been studied as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, but whether a causal relationship exists has been unclear. A study by Kamstrup and colleagues examining genetically mediated increases in lipoprotein(a) concentration now provides evidence that it could indeed represent a causal coronary risk factor.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram of lipoprotein(a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, UK

    John Danesh & Sebhat Erqou

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  1. John Danesh
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  2. Sebhat Erqou
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Correspondence to John Danesh.

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Competing interests

J. Danesh has received grants from the British Heart Foundation, BUPA Foundation, European Union, Evelyn Trust, GlaxoSmithKline, Medical Research Council, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis and the Wellcome Trust, and donations of assay kits from diaDexus and Roche.

S. Erqou has received consultancy payments from GlaxoSmithKline for work on meta-analyses.

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Danesh, J., Erqou, S. Lipoprotein(a) and coronary disease—moving closer to causality. Nat Rev Cardiol 6, 565–567 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.138

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