In this video Dr. Jean-Pierre Després interviews Dr. Stephen Nicholls who is the Medical Director of Intravascular Ultrasound and Angiography Core Laboratories at Cleveland Clinic and Clinical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention.Dr. Nicholls has extensively studied lipids/lipoproteins involved in the atherosclerosis disease progression and recognizes that the high triglyceride-low HDL cholesterol, small LDL particle atherogenic dyslipidemia is involved in the process. He also speaks about the heterogeneity of the disease progression/regression. For instance, he raises the point that some patients achieving low LDL cholesterol concentrations with statins may not show any significant reduction in the atherosclerotic plaque because they have high apolipoprotein B levels. Dr. Nicholls also points out that, for the time being, the beneficial effect of raising HDL cholesterol remains to be elucidated. Finally, he concludes the interview by mentioning that he hopes that imaging technologies in addition to plasma biomarkers will help physicians to find patients who have lipid-rich, inflamed plaque burden disease as opposed to the fibrotic disease.
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