Rung 1 panel
Comprehensive Cardiometabolic Panel
19 tests · 89 biomarkers
Member$264.87
At-vendor lab cost, no markup.
Non-member$361.87
Lab cost plus $97 interpretation and review.
Coming soon
Cardiovascular health
The panel that actually predicts events.
Read in the window where the disease is still most modifiable. Decades before a stress test would catch it.
Start with a Precision Call
No charge. No card. No pressure.
Recognition
What this shows up as.
- Family history of early heart attack, stroke, or sudden cardiac death.
- Normal cholesterol on a standard panel but a gut sense that something is off.
- Borderline blood pressure that has crept up year over year.
- Inflammatory markers (hsCRP) you have never been told about.
- Doing the right things and not seeing your markers move.
- Erectile dysfunction (the earliest vascular warning, often missed).
The stakes
Most of it is preventable, decades ahead.
Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Most of it is preventable, decades in advance, with the right read. Standard cholesterol panels miss the actual drivers. By the time something shows up on a treadmill stress test, the damage has been accumulating for twenty years. The earlier window is where this disease is most modifiable.
Cardiovascular health is the integrity of your vascular system, the lipoproteins that move through it, the inflammation that damages it, and the metabolic context that drives all three. It is not your LDL cholesterol. It is the particle count, the particle behavior, the genetic risk you inherited, and the lifestyle inputs that either accelerate or slow the trajectory.
The outcome
What changes when you actually read this.
- You know your true particle risk, not just your cholesterol concentration.
- You catch Lp(a) once. Genetic, set for life, reframes everything else.
- You drive the modifiable drivers down before an event, not after one.
The outcome is lowering measured risk and the modifiable drivers, traceable to a finding. Not a guarantee against a heart attack or stroke. No physician can promise that.
The read
Three rungs. You climb only when the last read leaves a question.
Almost every patient is read on rung one. The deeper rungs earn their place when the standard advanced panel does not answer the question.
1
The read for almost everyone
Comprehensive cardiometabolic blood panel.
ApoB, Lp(a), NMR particle count and size, hs-CRP, full lipids, fasting insulin, glycation markers. Read against optimal, not disease cutoffs.
2
When the standard advanced panel does not answer the question
Boston Heart Cardiometabolic.
Advanced lipid sub-fractions, inflammation, insulin resistance, and genetic markers in one collection. The heavier specialty send-out. Reserved for the case the rung-one read cannot resolve.
Rung 2 panel
Boston Heart Cardiometabolic
Specialty send-out. Reserved for the question rung one cannot answer.
The member workup
Inside the Precision Partnership. Lab at vendor cost, interpretation included. The pricing path most patients use.
Standalone option
Lab cost plus an interpretation fee for non-members. Priced above the standard $97 interpretation fee given the depth of the read.
Boston Heart lab cost and standalone interpretation fee placeholder. Pending Dr. Tagge sign-off.
3
When the case warrants it
Imaging as a directed referral.
A coronary artery calcium score (CAC), or a CT angiogram (CCTA) for a specific indication. Ordered to a local imaging center, read by radiology, integrated into your Plan. Not performed in-house.
Rung 3 referral
Ordered to a local imaging center.
- Coronary artery calcium score (CAC), when the clinical question warrants the radiation dose.
- CT angiogram (CCTA) for a specific indication. Carries contrast and a real radiation dose. Reserved, not default.
- Read by radiology at the imaging center. Integrated into your Plan by Dr. Tagge.
- Paid directly to the imaging center. No markup. No price card.
Not performed in-house. This is a directed referral.
The markers
What I read, and why it matters.
ApoB
The atherogenic particle count. Above everything.
Lp(a)
Genetic. Measured once. Reframes risk dramatically when elevated.
Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio
A pragmatic insulin-resistance signal.
hs-CRP
Inflammation, directly measured.
Fasting insulin
Insulin resistance upstream of glucose drift.
Glycation markers
How sugar is landing on your proteins.
Marker list provisional. Pending Dr. Tagge’s clinical sign-off.
Inside the Partnership
Treat the driver, not the event.
When ApoB calls for it, the Plan moves to treatment. Inside the Precision Partnership, the read leads to the Plan, and the Plan does not wait for the event.
Pending Dr. Tagge sign-off: statin and ezetimibe prescribing language to be supplied per his approved scope.
Common questions
Questions I get a lot.
Why ApoB and not LDL-C?
LDL-C tells you the cholesterol concentration in your LDL particles. ApoB tells you how many particles you have. Two people with identical LDL-C can have very different particle counts and very different risk. ApoB has been the better predictor in every head-to-head trial.
What about a coronary artery calcium scan?
Useful in the right patient. A zero CAC score is genuinely reassuring; a high score sharpens the case for aggressive intervention. I order it when the clinical question warrants the radiation dose.
I have elevated Lp(a). What do I do?
Lp(a) is genetic and not changed by lifestyle. The intervention is to drive everything else lower. ApoB target moves down. Lifestyle becomes non-negotiable. There are emerging Lp(a)-specific therapies in trials.
Do statins still make sense?
Yes, when the data supports them. I prescribe them based on ApoB and overall risk, not just LDL-C. The side-effect profile is real but smaller than internet discourse suggests, and the absolute risk reduction in the right patient is large.
What is the Boston Heart panel?
A comprehensive cardiometabolic panel from Boston Heart Diagnostics. It reads advanced lipid sub-fractions, inflammation, insulin resistance, and genetic markers in one collection. I use it when the standard advanced lipid panel does not answer the question.
Measure the particles. Catch the genetic load. Move the modifiable drivers.
Start with a Precision Call.
Start with a Precision Call
No charge. No card. No pressure.