Heart Quick Check Panel
Heart Quick Check is a blood test panel covering cholesterol, ApoB and Lp(a) to clarify risk patterns and guide next steps with your clinician.
This panel bundles multiple biomarker tests in one order—your report explains how results fit together.
This is a lab panel, meaning you get multiple heart-related blood markers in one draw. Heart Quick Check is built for the common “Where do I stand right now?” moment—especially if you have a family history of early heart attack or stroke, you’re making lifestyle changes, or you’re already on a cholesterol medication and want a clearer read than LDL alone.
Instead of focusing on a single number, this panel helps you see a pattern: cholesterol and triglycerides, plus particle-related markers like apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)). That combination can explain why your risk looks different than you expected, and whether you might benefit from deeper lipid testing next.
Do I need this panel?
You may want the Heart Quick Check panel if you’ve been told your “cholesterol is high” but you’re not sure what that actually means for your risk. It’s also a good fit if you’re trying to reduce cardiovascular risk proactively—especially with a family history of early heart attack or stroke, a history of high LDL cholesterol, or metabolic risk factors like insulin resistance or fatty liver.
This panel is also useful when you’re on a statin or other lipid-lowering therapy and you want to confirm that the therapy is improving the markers that matter most for plaque risk—not just one headline number. Many people see LDL-C move while ApoB or triglycerides tell a different story, and that mismatch is exactly what a quick check can surface.
Consider this panel if you’ve had “normal” cholesterol in the past but you want to check Lp(a). Lp(a) is largely inherited, can be elevated even in otherwise healthy people, and is not included in many routine lipid tests.
Your results can support a clinician-directed plan, but they are not a diagnosis by themselves. The most helpful interpretation comes from combining your panel pattern with your blood pressure, smoking status, diabetes status, medications, family history, and (when appropriate) imaging like coronary calcium scoring.
This panel is measured from a standard blood sample; reference ranges and optimal targets can vary by lab and by your personal risk profile, so interpretation should be individualized.
Lab testing
Order labs to measure Heart Quick Check
from $34 at Quest Diagnostics
About 1 week
Schedule online — results typically within a week
Clear next steps
Guidance included, with follow-up care available
HSA / FSA
Eligible for pre-tax health spending accounts
Get this panel with Vitals Vault
Vitals Vault makes it straightforward to order a heart-focused lab panel when you want clarity before committing to a bigger workup. You can use Heart Quick Check as an affordable baseline, then decide whether you need deeper lipid fractionation or additional inflammation and metabolic markers.
After you get results, PocketMD can help you translate the full pattern—how ApoB relates to LDL-C, what a high Lp(a) means (and what it doesn’t), and which changes are most likely to move your numbers. If you’re already on medication, you can also use your results to have a more specific conversation about dose, adherence, side effects, and whether follow-up testing is needed.
If your quick check suggests higher complexity (for example, discordant LDL-C and ApoB, or elevated Lp(a) with a strong family history), you can step up to a more comprehensive heart panel for a deeper look.
- One blood draw with multiple cardiovascular-relevant markers
- Designed to make lipid “jargon” easier to interpret as a pattern
- PocketMD support to help you understand results and plan next steps
- Useful for baseline testing and for monitoring response over time
Key benefits of Heart Quick Check
- Shows a fuller lipid-risk pattern than LDL cholesterol alone by pairing standard lipids with ApoB and Lp(a).
- Helps identify “discordance” (for example, normal LDL-C but high ApoB), which can change how you think about risk.
- Adds Lp(a), a largely inherited risk factor that is often missed in routine cholesterol testing.
- Supports medication monitoring by tracking markers that reflect atherogenic particle burden, not just total cholesterol.
- Clarifies whether high triglycerides or low HDL-C are contributing to your overall risk pattern.
- Gives you a practical baseline you can repeat to track lifestyle changes like weight loss, diet shifts, or alcohol reduction.
- Helps you decide when it’s worth moving up to advanced lipid or high-risk heart panels for deeper detail.
What is the Heart Quick Check panel?
Heart Quick Check is a bundled blood test panel that measures multiple markers tied to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. It combines a standard lipid profile (cholesterol and triglycerides) with particle-related markers that often explain confusing results.
A key idea behind this panel is that cholesterol is carried through your bloodstream inside lipoprotein particles. LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) is the amount of cholesterol inside LDL particles, but it does not always reflect how many atherogenic particles you have. ApoB is a protein found on most atherogenic particles (including LDL and VLDL remnants), so ApoB is often used as a proxy for particle number.
Lp(a) is a special LDL-like particle with an added protein (apolipoprotein(a)). Elevated Lp(a) is common, tends to be genetic, and can increase risk even when other lipid numbers look “fine.” Because Lp(a) is not reliably lowered by lifestyle changes and is not included in many routine panels, knowing your Lp(a) can prevent a false sense of reassurance—or unnecessary panic—by putting your overall pattern into context.
This panel is meant to be a quick, high-yield screen. If it shows a higher-risk pattern, the next step is usually to confirm the pattern over time and consider more detailed testing (and risk-reduction strategies) based on your personal history.
What do my panel results mean?
When key markers are low
In a heart-risk context, “low” is usually most relevant for HDL-C (often called “good cholesterol”) or for triglycerides and ApoB when you’re tracking improvement. A pattern of low triglycerides with a reasonable HDL-C can suggest better metabolic health and fewer triglyceride-rich particles. If ApoB is low (or lower than before) while LDL-C is also controlled, it often indicates a lower burden of atherogenic particles. Very low cholesterol numbers can occur with intensive lipid-lowering therapy or certain medical conditions; if your values are unexpectedly low or you have symptoms, review medications, nutrition, and overall health with your clinician.
When the pattern looks optimal
An “optimal” Heart Quick Check pattern generally means LDL-C and non-HDL-C are in a favorable range for your risk category, triglycerides are not elevated, and ApoB is aligned with (or lower than) what your LDL-C would suggest. Lp(a) is ideally not elevated, because high Lp(a) can raise risk even when everything else looks good. The most reassuring pattern is consistency across markers: LDL-C, non-HDL-C, and ApoB all pointing in the same low-risk direction, with triglycerides supporting good metabolic status.
When one or more markers are high
A “high” pattern can show up in different ways, and the combination matters. High LDL-C and high non-HDL-C often indicate more cholesterol carried in atherogenic particles, but ApoB helps confirm whether particle burden is truly high. If ApoB is high even when LDL-C is only mildly elevated, that can suggest more particles than LDL-C alone implies (a common scenario with insulin resistance). Elevated triglycerides can point toward more VLDL particles and remnant cholesterol, which may increase risk and often responds to weight loss, reduced refined carbs, and less alcohol. High Lp(a) is different: it is frequently genetic, may not change much with lifestyle, and can justify a more aggressive overall risk-reduction plan even if the rest of the lipid panel is acceptable.
Factors that influence this panel
Your numbers can shift with recent diet patterns, weight change, alcohol intake, thyroid status, and how consistently you take medications. Triglycerides are especially sensitive to recent meals, alcohol, and short-term metabolic changes, while Lp(a) is typically stable over time and mostly inherited. ApoB and LDL-C can be lowered by statins, ezetimibe, PCSK9 inhibitors, and other therapies; they can also rise with diets high in saturated fat in some people. Illness, pregnancy, and certain medications can affect lipids as well. Because this is a multi-marker panel, the goal is not to fixate on a single value but to understand whether the results agree with each other and with your overall risk profile.
What’s included in this panel
- 10 Year Ascvd Risk
- 10 Year Ascvd Risk Goal
- African American
- Chol/Hdlc Ratio
- Cholesterol, Total
- Current Smoker
- Diabetes
- Hdl Cholesterol
- Hs Crp
- Ldl-Cholesterol
- Lifetime Ascvd Risk
- Non Hdl Cholesterol
- Systolic Blood Pressure
- Treatment For High B.P.
- Triglycerides
Similar tests and deeper heart panels
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to fast for the Heart Quick Check panel?
Fasting is often recommended when triglycerides are being measured because recent food and alcohol can raise them and change calculated values. If you can, follow the collection instructions provided at checkout or by the lab. If you didn’t fast, your results can still be useful—just interpret triglycerides (and any calculated values that depend on them) with that context.
How is ApoB different from LDL cholesterol?
LDL-C is the amount of cholesterol carried inside LDL particles. ApoB is a protein present on most atherogenic particles, so it more directly reflects how many of those particles are circulating. When LDL-C and ApoB disagree (called discordance), ApoB can better match risk in many people—especially when triglycerides are elevated or insulin resistance is present.
If my Lp(a) is high, does that mean I will have a heart attack?
No. A high Lp(a) is a risk factor, not a diagnosis or a prediction. It means you may have higher baseline risk, particularly with a family history of early cardiovascular disease. The practical use is to tighten up the risk factors you can change (blood pressure, ApoB/LDL lowering, smoking, diabetes control) and consider whether you need deeper evaluation with your clinician.
How often should I repeat this panel?
It depends on why you tested. If you’re starting or changing lipid-lowering therapy, clinicians often recheck in weeks to a few months to confirm response and adherence. If you’re using it for lifestyle tracking, repeating every 3–12 months is common. Lp(a) is usually stable and often only needs to be measured once unless your clinician has a specific reason to recheck.
Is this panel enough, or do I need an advanced heart panel?
Heart Quick Check is designed as a high-yield screen. You may want a more advanced panel if you have known cardiovascular disease, very high LDL-C, strong family history, elevated Lp(a), or confusing patterns like normal LDL-C with high ApoB or high triglycerides. Advanced panels can add deeper lipid fractionation and additional cardiometabolic markers to refine next steps.
Can I order these tests separately instead of as a panel?
You often can, but a panel is usually simpler because it’s one order and one blood draw with markers that are meant to be interpreted together. The value of Heart Quick Check is the combined pattern—standard lipids plus ApoB and Lp(a)—which reduces the chance that you’ll miss an important piece of the story.