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NLA Scientific Sessions focus on community-building, applying new lipid management methods
Experts will discuss the importance of lipids as a risk factor for CVD and ways to manage it, specifically with recent publications of new data and guidelines at this year’s National Lipid Association Scientific Sessions.
The 4-day meeting will take place Thursday to Sunday at the Turnberry Isle Miami and will feature intensive sessions on topics such as PCSK9 inhibitors, testing and treating lipoprotein(a), and managing CV risk in several patient populations.
Importance of lipids
“Out of all the things that lead to coronary artery disease, which is the most common cause of death in the United States, one of the biggest contributors is abnormal lipids,” Alan S. Brown, MD, FNLA, FACC, FAHA, director of the division of cardiology at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, co-director of the cardiology service line for the Advocate Medical Group in Park Ridge, clinical associate professor at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Park Ridge, and president and committee co-chair of the National Lipid Association (NLA), told Cardiology Today.
The target audience of the NLA Scientific Sessions includes a wide range of specialists such as cardiologists, endocrinologists, internists, dietitians, pharmacists, nurses and OB-GYNs.
Two manuscripts will be presented and published during the meeting, including a cost-effectiveness analysis of PCSK9 inhibitors on Thursday and a review of available data on Lp(a) on Friday.
On Friday, there will also be a session focused on South Asian patients and their risk for atherosclerotic CVD, which will include information on topics such as screening and prevention strategies, the impact of diet and lifestyle modifications and increasing awareness with social media. The session will be led by Dinesh Kalra, MD, assistant professor in the department of internal medicine and director of advanced cardiac imaging at Rush University in Chicago.
“Something that was pointed out in the new ACC/AHA guidelines is that having South Asian descent was an enhanced risk factor,” Brown said in an interview. “We felt that it needs a lot more focus from both our doctors who are not South Asian as well as our patients who are South Asian.”
There will be three late-breaking presentations on Saturday, including an analysis of the REDUCE-IT trial focused on total ischemic events, the effects of inclisiran (The Medicines Company) to lower LDL and a survey conducted by the NLA on the statin adverse treatment experience.
Results from the REDUCE-IT trial will also be the topic of a debate on Saturday and will include discussions by Nihar Desai, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) and in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale School of Medicine; Pamela Morris, MD, FNLA, director of the Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program, co-director of the Women’s Heart Care Program and professor of medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; Vera A. Bittner, MD, MSPH, FNLA, professor in the division of cardiovascular disease and section head of general cardiology, prevention and imaging at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research and chair of the department of preventive medicine, and director of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
“It was a remarkable study and it brings the question, ‘Who should we give this drug to?’” Brown told Cardiology Today.
New sessions this year
On Sunday, there will be a session on healthy eating and cultural differences with discussions on diets such as the Southern U.S. diet, Latino/Hispanic diet, South Asian diet and a Mediterranean diet with presenters including Ginnie Barringer, MS, LDN, CDE, BCADM, registered dietitian at Novant Health Heart and Vascular Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina; Heather E. Rasmussen, PhD, RDN, associate professor and director of dietetic internship at University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Education and Human Services; Wahida Karmally, PhD, DrPH, RDN, CDE, CLS, FNLA, director of nutrition at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; and Mary N. Felando, MS, RDN, FNLA, consulting registered dietitian nutritionist in Seal Beach, California.
“There’s a series of lectures on specific ethnic diets and how they might affect atherosclerosis, which is a new thing for us, and it should be fascinating,” Brown said in an interview.
Another new session to this year’s scientific sessions include Top Three Countdown, which is scheduled for Sunday and will include discussion on potentially practice-changing clinical trials, novel mechanisms of lipid lowering, publications in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and knowledge gaps in dyslipidemia management.
There will be a women’s health session on Saturday, which is also new to the meeting and will discuss topics such as contraceptive therapy selection, postmenopausal hormone therapy and polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis in adolescents.
“I get referrals all the time for young women who are thought to have genetic lipid problems,” Brown said in an interview. “I go back to when they were younger and if I can find a lipid profile sometimes, they’re normal. They realize this is not genetic; it’s due to the contraceptive. A lot of people don’t think about that and start these young women on cholesterol-lowering medicine when really they just need to switch contraceptives.”
Through sessions that span across several specialties, this meeting aims to build a community among lipidologists, especially since there are so few specialists within institutions across the country, Brown told Cardiology Today.
He added: “Building a community around the field is something we feel strongly about. We have small enough meetings that everybody can be exposed to world experts. ... These meetings provide a chance for everybody to get together and really dig in deep to an area that they’re passionate about.”
Cardiology Today and Healio.com will provide coverage from the NLA Scientific Sessions, including reports on the sessions, on-site video interviews and much more. For more information on the NLA agenda and registration, visit www.lipid.org. – by Darlene Dobkowski
For more information:
Alan S. Brown, MD, FNLA, FACC, FAHA, can be reached at alan.brown@advocatehealth.com.
Disclosure : Brown reports he served on advisory boards and has given presentations for companies that make PCSK9 inhibitors.