New test to better predict heart attack risk in women

The biggest killer of women over the age of 50 is heart disease. By age 65 women have the same heart attack or stroke risk as men and a greater risk of dying from either. To help better predict heart attack risk in these women, Atherotech Diagnostics Lab has developed a new and better way to test for heart disease risk. The new test will soon be available exclusively through Atherotech Diagnostics Lab.

“This new ratio shows great promise in being able to help doctors better determine which women over age 50 are at greater risk of a heart attack.”

"We're basically looking at the ratio of good cholesterol to very bad cholesterol," said Atherotech Diagnostics Lab Chief Medical Officer Michael E. Cobble, M.D. "This new ratio shows great promise in being able to help doctors better determine which women over age 50 are at greater risk of a heart attack."

Researcher Heidi T. May, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Intermountain Medical Center in Utah, helped discover the new ratio. May said that at age 50 — around the time of menopause — women begin to catch up with men in terms of heart disease risk.

"It is often difficult to determine who's at risk in this population because of their already elevated HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Therefore, developing a way to better identify increased risk of heart disease in this group could have significant clinical implications," May said.

May is the lead author of a study that was recently presented at the National Lipid Association Scientific Sessions and published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology that evaluated the ability of this new ratio to predict death or heart attack in women over age 50. The researchers concluded that the ratio of apoA1 (good kinds of cholesterol) to remnant lipoproteins (bad kinds of cholesterol) is a strong predictor of short- and intermediate-term heart disease risk among women over 50 years of age compared to standard cholesterol measurements such as LDL, HDL and total cholesterol.

John R. Nelson, M.D., will include May's study in an August 26 presentation The Practical Importance of ApoA1/Remnants Lipoproteins during the Advanced Risk Assessment & Diagnostic Testing Dinner Symposium at the National Lipid Association's Summer 2011 Clinical Lipid Update.

The higher the ratio of apoA1 to remnant lipoproteins the better. In this study, the average risk ratio score was 6.6, and anything above 6.8 was found to be good and a score below 4.7 indicated increased risk. This new risk ratio test will soon be available to physicians and laboratories contracting exclusively through Atherotech Diagnostics Lab.

Atherotech Diagnostics Lab provides physicians with a single source for the VAP Cholesterol Test, the Cholesterol Guidelines Report and more than a dozen cardiovascular and metabolic tests.

Source Atherotech Diagnostics Lab