More and more people are
experiencing various heart diseases, such as heart attacks and heart failure.
To determine the condition of your heart health, there are several blood tests
that must be done.
What are the blood tests?
When to do the blood test? Find out the answer below.
The types of blood tests performed to assess heart health
Blood is one part of the
body that is usually used to examine various bodily functions, including heart
health.
A study has proven that
there are several types of blood tests that can help detect heart disease from
the start.
The study published in
the Journal of the American Association revealed that blood tests can detect
symptoms even from 15 years before a diagnosis is determined.
Although indeed, these
findings still have to be studied further, but blood tests are a basic test
that must be done to determine heart health.
So, what types of blood
tests are usually done to check a person's heart health?
1. Cholesterol test
Maybe you have often
heard of this type of blood test. Yes, cholesterol tests do aim to see the
amount of cholesterol in your body. Cholesterol levels are a sign of heart
failure or not.
There are three types of
cholesterol tests that will be carried out, namely:
Total cholesterol
This test looks at the
total cholesterol levels in the body. The higher the number, the higher the
risk of heart disease. If you are healthy, cholesterol must be below 200 mg /
dL.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
Usually, this type of
cholesterol is called bad cholesterol, because it can cause blocked blood
vessels if there are too many in the body.
Normally, bad cholesterol
must be less than 130 mg / dL.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL)
In contrast, HDL is
called good cholesterol because it has a way of working in contrast to LDL. HDL
helps keep blood vessels from clogging due to LDL.
Therefore, the best HDL
level that must be possessed is more than 40 mg / dL (for men) and more than 50
mg / dl (for women).
2. C-reactive protein (CRP) test
CRP is a type of protein
produced by the liver (liver) when there is inflammation or injury in the body.
So, if the blood test results show that the CRP number is high, then this could
be due to one part of the body's organ being injured, not just the heart.
Therefore, usually this
test will only be done when someone already feels the initial symptoms of heart
disease.
CRP levels above 2.0 mg
can be suspected that you have heart failure.
3. Lipoprotein test (a)
Lipoprotein (a) or Lp (a)
is one type of bad cholesterol (LDL). The level of Lp (a) in the body actually
depends on the genetic you carry, environmental factors do not really affect
it.
So, when indeed the level
of Lp (a) is high, you could say you risk having a genetic health problem due
to genetics.
Usually, this examination
is recommended for people who have family members who have had heart disease.
4. Brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) test
BNP is also a type of
protein produced by the heart and blood vessels. This protein is responsible
for regulating blood flow and making blood vessels more relaxed.
Well, when there is
indeed a heart health disorder, the heart will release more BNP into the blood
vessels.
Usually, this test
detects the presence of heart failure or other heart disease. For those of you
who have had a heart attack, this examination will be recommended to be done
routinely.
