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"Medical Journeys" is a set of clinical resources reviewed by doctors, meant for physicians and other healthcare professionals as well as the patients they serve. Each episode of this journey through a disease state contains both a physician guide and a downloadable/printable patient resource. "Medical Journeys" chart a path each step of the way for physicians and patients and provide continual resources and support, as the caregiver team navigates the course of a disease.
This installment: A noteworthy case study.
What to do when an apparently healthy 33-year-old woman with a body mass index of 22.7 and who was 160 cm (5' 3") tall is found to have elevated cholesterol and refuses medical treatment? That was the quandary facing Elham Vafaei, MD, of Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, and Samaneh Bahoosh, a data scientist in Vancouver, Canada, who is affiliated with Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
As they described in the International Journal of Nutrology, the patient's routine lab tests showed a total cholesterol of 301 mg/dL (reference range < 200 mg/dL), with a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) of 215 mg/dL (reference range < 100 mg/dL). She was surprised and concerned that the numbers were so elevated.
