Cardiovascular study: Patients at risk of heart disease may soon be identified by measuring the amount of cholesterol in the skin.
A new and non-invasive skin test for the bad form of cholesterol that causes arteries to block has been found to correlate well with an ultrasound scan that measures the thickening found in the arteries of people with no known history of heart disease.
Dr James Stein, associated professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, presented the results of the skin cholesterol study to the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific meeting in Orlando.
He and his colleagues carried out an ultrasound of the carotid (neck) arteries of 81 patients while at the same time measuring their levels of skin cholesterol. The skin test uses so-called near-patient technology which enables doctors to carry out tests in their surgeries without having to refer them for laboratory investigation. It takes three to five minutes to complete.
The researchers found the thickness of the carotid artery wall correlated well with skin cholesterol levels even after other risk factors for heart disease such as age, sex, blood sugar and blood pressure had been taken into account.
The average age of the study participants was 55; 36 per cent of them were women. Some patients were taking lipid-lowering treatment but when they were excluded the link between skin cholesterol and arterial thickening still applied.
"Because skin cholesterol is easy to measure it is my opinion that it could be useful in doctors' offices," Dr Stein said. The measurement did not involve the use of a needle. But he said the test would not replace blood testing for cholesterol and for other inflammatory markers currently used to assess the risk of heart disease. "It is not meant to replace traditional risk factor assessment. The test is an anatomic measure of the disease process - it is a measure of atherosclerosis. It is important not to think of this as a way to measure blood cholesterol in the skin. These are two separate processes," said Dr Stein.
However, when asked whether measuring skin cholesterol would be useful in everyday practice, he said it would and should be welcomed as it was something that could be used as part of the initial consultation. But he acknowledged further trials with larger number of patients were needed.