Doctors urge more regular heart disease screening

Doctors are calling for more regular preventive examinations to identify cardiovascular risks earlier, ORF reports. The Austrian Lipid Consensus 2026 sets out new treatment recommendations for cholesterol and other blood fats, with a focus on detecting risk factors at an early stage.

Florian Kronenberg of the Medical University of Innsbruck and Vienna physician Florian Höllerl, two of the paper’s four coordinators, said cardiovascular disease remains Europe’s most common cause of death. In Austria, it accounts for 37 percent of deaths among women and 31 percent among men.

Women are less likely to receive appropriate treatment, Höllerl said. Diseases are perceived differently between the sexes, and heart attacks can present differently in women. The consensus paper contains a separate chapter on the issue.

The experts said people of all sexes are undertreated, particularly when it comes to cholesterol-lowering medication. They said patients were not solely responsible for elevated cholesterol levels. Diet and exercise can improve cholesterol levels by about 10 to 15 percent, but this is often insufficient to reach individual treatment targets.

Medication may then be necessary, the doctors said. They also called on doctors to provide adequate information and take patients’ needs and fears seriously, saying cholesterol-lowering drugs had an undeservedly poor reputation.

Doctors call for Lp(a) testing

The new consensus focuses on prevention. A large proportion of cardiovascular disease could be avoided through consistent treatment of elevated LDL cholesterol and other risk factors, the experts said.

Only just under 19 percent of the population currently attends preventive examinations. The doctors said these examinations should be improved, particularly in relation to cholesterol parameters. They are calling for the inclusion of lipoprotein(a), known as Lp(a), in particular.

Lp(a) is a largely unknown risk factor. One in five people has a level that significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. The recommendation is that every adult should have their Lp(a) level measured at least once in their lifetime.

The paper’s authors calculated that testing 10,000 people for Lp(a) and providing more intensive treatment to those affected could prevent 60 heart attacks, 13 strokes and 26 deaths in Austria.

Kronenberg said a single blood test could warn families before the first heart attack. Höllerl said three out of four people who suffer a heart attack had not previously received treatment, adding that prevention should begin before patients require hospital care.

First lipid profile recommended by age 20

The doctors compared preventive healthcare with regular car servicing, saying people often wait until a heart attack or stroke occurs even though the risk could have been identified and reduced earlier.

Prevention should begin during adolescence, the experts said. A first lipid profile should be carried out between the ages of 18 and 20. Young men already receive a blood test as part of the assessment for military service, while women tend to be more health-conscious, according to the doctors.

The experts also recommend measuring Lp(a) at least once in every person’s lifetime. The paper was published in the Wiener klinische Wochenschrift.