According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of all U.S. adults have cardiovascular disease. And one in five people will be readmitted to the hospital for a second heart attack within five years of their first.
But it’s possible to prevent—and potentially reverse—heart disease by effectively managing your risk factors. In our Preventive Cardiology and Apheresis Clinic, we help people do just that.
How We Help Manage Your Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
Some cardiovascular disease risk factors can’t be changed, such as being older than 65 or having a family history of heart disease. You can impact others, including:
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- High LDL cholesterol
- Obesity
- Physical inactivity
- Smoking
- Uncontrolled diabetes
In our comprehensive program, we look at your heart disease risk factors and create a personalized plan to improve or eliminate them. If you have heart disease in your family, we also provide the treatments needed for you to optimize your health.
Your cholesterol levels need to be in a certain range to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease. With our wide range of treatments and expertise, we help you get there.
Most people come to our clinic for one or two visits where we identify and teach you how to address your personal risk factors. You may be with us longer if we prescribe medications that need monitoring.
Is Preventive Cardiology for You?
Your doctor may have referred you to our clinic. Or you may be interested in preventive cardiology because you have personal risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
You may benefit from preventive cardiology if:
Preventive Cardiology: The Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Advantage
Our clinic proactively addresses issues that put people at risk for heart disease. We also provide thorough evaluations to uncover risk factors that often go undetected. Our services include routine use of advanced lipid and genetic tests that aren’t widely available.
Our program also offers:
- Leaders in preventive cardiology: Our prevention team includes doctors and nurse practitioners who specialize in preventive cardiology and cholesterol management. As National Lipid Association members, they are certified lipidologists and on the pulse of the latest research and cholesterol treatments. We also conduct research at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health. As a result, our patients receive the most effective, evidence-based treatment regimens and experience the best possible results.
- Latest medications: Thanks to our active participation in heart and vascular clinical trials and research, our patients are among the first to have access to effective new medications. These drugs include medications for people with genetic disorders that are highly resistant to other cholesterol treatments.
- Multidisciplinary care: When you come to our clinic, the full power of the Penn Medicine cardiovascular team is on your side. Your prevention providers collaborate with Penn Medicine specialists from 16 other subspecialty heart clinics. These clinics provide specialized care in specific cardiac subspecialty areas such as interventional cardiology. By working together, we can care for all your cardiovascular needs, even if they’re complex.
- Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) expertise: Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that causes high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad,” cholesterol. Lancaster County has a high proportion of people with FH compared to the rest of the U.S.—and the specific gene mutation found here is often hard to identify. Our clinic specializes in the identification and management of FH. Our special expertise in FH treatment helps us catch and treat FH early, leading to better outcomes.
- On-site lipid apheresis treatment: We are one of only a few practices in the nation to offer on-site lipid apheresis treatment. Apheresis is dialysis for cholesterol. It works by filtering blood to remove LDL cholesterol and returning the blood to your body. Apheresis is for people with extremely high cholesterol levels who do not respond to, or cannot tolerate, cholesterol-lowering drugs
Our Preventive Cardiology Services
Education is at the heart of our preventive cardiology care. We empower you to manage your risk factors by making sure you understand our personalized recommendations. Step by step, we help you reach your health goals and avoid future heart problems.
Our services include:
- Familial hypercholesterolemia counseling
- Lifestyle modification, including exercise and nutrition
- Lipid apheresis treatment
- Medication therapy, including infusions, antibody drugs and interfering RNA drugs
- Risk assessment and testing, including calcium score, hs-CRP and lipoprotein(a)
- Risk factor education, including videos and in-person counseling
- Specialized help for people with cholesterol medication intolerance
Once your lab numbers stabilize, you graduate from our program. We usually follow up with you after six months to make sure they are still stable
Cholesterol Management and Advanced Lipid Testing
To get an in-depth look at your cholesterol levels, we use advanced lipid tests not commonly offered elsewhere. They give us a more complete picture, so we can better identify and treat your risk factors.
Our advanced lipid tests include different methods of measuring LDL cholesterol levels, including:
- Cardio IQ
- NMR LipoProfile® test
- LDL particle number
We also extensively perform lipoprotein(a) tests, which measure a type of LDL cholesterol tied to inherited heart disease risk. While elevated levels of lipoprotein(a) are a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, they aren’t commonly tested for.
Preventive Cardiology and Apheresis Clinic Location and Hours
We’re located two blocks from Lancaster General Hospital at:
Lancaster General Health Harrisburg Avenue
217 Harrisburg Avenue
Suite 201
Lancaster, PA 17603
Phone: 717-544-8300
Driving directions
Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 7:30am - 4pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Heart Risk Assessment
Learn your heart age and reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by taking our Heart Risk Assessment.
Peripheral Artery Disease Risk Profiler
Discover your risk for peripheral artery disease (PAD)—and steps you can take to stay healthy—by taking our Peripheral Artery Disease Risk Profiler.
Make an Appointment
To schedule a preventive cardiology appointment or consultation—including e-consults—call 717-544-8300.