Preventive Cardiology

Abnormal cholesterol and high blood pressure are well-recognized conditions in adults. It surprises many people that these conditions can also arise in childhood, and that they lay the foundation for heart disease in adulthood. Research shows that normalizing cholesterol values and reducing high blood pressure in children may help prevent or slow the development of heart disease as they reach adulthood.

For more than 30 years, the Preventive Cardiology Clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston has offered state-of-the-art services aimed at identifying and medically managing the risk factors—particularly abnormal cholesterol and blood pressure often related to excess weight—that lead to cardiac events in adulthood. Its goals are to prevent heart attack, stroke and other acute cardiac events later in life; to decrease mortality; and to increase a child's future quality of life. We're the first and largest clinical service of this kind in the Northeast—highly experienced in evaluating and treating heart disease risk factors in children.

Our expertise

The Preventive Cardiology Clinic at Children’s is the only clinical service in the Northeast that focuses on preventing heart disease in children. We take a multidisciplinary, team approach to managing the young patients who come to our clinic. Our providers include clinicians specializing in pediatric cardiology and heart disease prevention, endocrinology, gastroenterology and primary care—as well as dieticians experienced in pediatric hyperlipidemia and hypertension.

Screening Children for Cholesterol

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, has issued important new guidelines for monitoring, and improving, cardiovascular health in children — including

screening for lipids, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

How will you respond?

Let Children’s cardiologists help you navigate the changes.

Resources for providers, summarizing the most important points
Resources for families, including important tips on health nutrition

Learn more about some of the controversy in this NY Times article.

Controlling high triglycerides with omega-3

Clinicians at Children’s Hospital Boston are conducting a trial to evaluate the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids in reducing triglyceride levels in children aged 12 to 19 who have high levels of triglycerides.

Good cholesterol "too low"

A study by our researchers following nearly 2,000 adolescents found that low HDL—“good cholesterol”—was the most common risk factor of five major risk factors for atherosclerosis, or thickening of the arteries. Evidence shows that an HDL level in adults greater than, or equal to, 40 mg/dL is protective, while values below 40 mg/dL are considered a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Most children should have HDL levels of 50mg/dL or more. Triglycerides should be less than, or equal to, 150 mg/dL.