ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Associated Press
A little-known form of ``bad'' cholesterol that doctors cannot yet measure reliably may cause early heart disease just as often as its better-known cousins, a study suggests.
The lesser-known culprit - called lipoprotein(a) - may lurk in dangerously high levels in the blood of people whose other cholesterol levels appear normal on routine tests, researchers say.
Excess levels of lipoprotein(a), which are particles of protein and fat in the blood, accounted for 10 percent of all cases of premature heart disease - those occurring before age 55 - among the 2,191 men studied, said Dr. Andrew Bostom, who led the work as a research fellow for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The findings were published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study included women, but too few cases of premature heart disease developed to calculate their risk from Lp(a), presumably because estrogen protects premenopausal women from heart disease, Bostom said.
Bostom said it's too early to do widespread testing for Lp(a) levels because no standardized screening exists and because even when the Lp(a) level is known, very little can now be done to modify it. Unlike other kinds of cholesterol, Lp(a) levels are 95 percent determined by genes, so drugs and changes in diet affect them very little.
The value of knowing an excess Lp(a) level is that it may warn the patient of the need for more aggressive treatment of other traits that also predict heart disease: smoking, poor diet, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol of the type whose levels can be altered through diet or drugs.
People worried about heart disease should concentrate on those risk factors rather than worrying about Lp(a), the researchers said.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB