About assessing the risk of not taking statins: As I said, the exam you're about to take is only able to give you positive answer (yes, your carotid is sclerotic), not negative (won't say: no, your coronaries or the rest of your arteries are not sclerotic), so it's sort of useless.
What I'm still wondering is how a familial hypercholesterolemy would have been missed during earlier blood tests? It's a pretty standard test here, and 7.8 and 10.3 are extremely high for a fit person.
Interesting point on the CIMT test, I hadn't considered that. I'm not sure I've ever had a cholesterol test before, so that might be why it wasn't picked up. :-)
My GP seems to be saying the because I'm fit and healthy, there's no other possible diagnosis than FH given the high numbers. I was kind of hoping for a bit more investigation and perhaps some corroboration. I'm not sure what form that should take though - genetic screen perhaps?
Probably there is no other possible diagnosis if your thyroid is ok. You can go do tests, but also the treatment probably remains the same (statins, etc.).
What I'm still wondering is how a familial hypercholesterolemy would have been missed during earlier blood tests? It's a pretty standard test here, and 7.8 and 10.3 are extremely high for a fit person.