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Lipitor Screening Van to visit MUSC June 5 MUSC and Ralph A. Johnson VA Medical Center employees will have the chance to discover their cholesterol levels and learn about their risks for developing heart disease during a free, one-day visit by the Lipitor Mobile Screening Van on June 5. The 53-foot Lipitor van, a self-contained mobile screening unit, will be parked behind MUSC's Gazes Cardiac Institute, between Courtney and Ehrhardt streets, on Monday, June 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The van was brought to Charleston by pharmaceutical giants Parke-Davis and Pfizer, co-marketers of Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) tablets. The unit is in the Charleston area to offer free cholesterol screenings to individuals during the 2000 Spoleto Festival USA events, May 26 through June 11. Visitors will undergo a 10-minute full lipid panel evaluation to discover total cholesterol levels including LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Together, these numbers can be interpreted to determine an individual's cardiovascular risk. In addition to the screening, participants will also be able to discuss their personal cholesterol evaluation with a professional counselor.  High cholesterol can increase a person's risk of cardiovascular disease, the nation's number one killer for men and women. Between 1980 and 1996, of the estimated 41,189 Americans who died from stroke, about 92 percent of them originated from the southeast and  77.2 percent had origins from South Carolina, according to Daniel T. Lackland, Dr.P.H., professor, Department of Biometry and Epidemiology. Studies show that most Americans are not treated to their cholesterol goal, especially those with multiple risk factors for heart disease such as elevated cholesterol, smoking, obesity, age and family history. “Each year, nearly 500,000 Americans die because of coronary heart disease, few adults realize that high cholesterol is a serious factor,” said Peter C. Gazes, M.D., clinical distinguished university professor of Cardiology. “The Lipitor Mobile Screening Unit can help the citizens of Charleston and the surrounding areas understand their risk for heart disease and ways to manage their elevated cholesterol levels.”