Blog posts

Lipoprotein(a) - (aka Lp(a))

When I was a kid, I occasionally saw Arthur Ashe playing tennis on the TV or 'telly' as it was to us Irish kids in the 70's/80's.  He was fantastic.  When he died in 1985, I was shocked.  One of my heroes had fallen.  Several decades later, I found out he died from AIDs contracted from a blood transfusion for heart surgery in 1983.  Why was this amazing athlete having heart surgery in the first place?  It turns out, he had elevated Lipoprotein(a) which necessitated having blocked arteries addressed with surgery.