Coronary Artery Disease Risk Prediction in Young Adults: How Can We Overcome the Dominant Effect of Age?

Purpose Of Review: We review the limitations of current approaches for predicting Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) in young adults and explore the alternative approaches identify high-risk individuals in this population.

Recent Findings: Atherosclerosis begins in childhood, and young individuals with genetic predisposition and individuals with early exposure to traditional and non-traditional risk factors have an increased lifetime risk of CAD. However, most risk prediction models have been developed and validated in middle and older age groups and focus on short-term risk.

Severe hypercholesterolemia in a patient with very low albumin and normal renal function.

A 20-year-old male presented with severe elevation in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Initial genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolemia was negative. Patient also had low albumin, and further genetic testing showed homozygous variants in the ALB gene, suggesting congenital analbuminemia (CAA) causing severe hyperlipidemia.