Measuring Heart Health

Measuring Heart Health

In an effort to determine the bestmeasure of an individual?s heart health, researchers looked atlow-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (or "bad" cholesterol) andapolipoprotein B (ApoB). To investigate, the researchers looked at 1522people in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. Theparticipants went through examinations for heart disease, stroke, anddiabetes risk factors. They were divided into 2 groups: 1 group would betreated based on their LDL levels, and the other group would be treatedbased on their ApoB levels. The findings, published recently in Circulation:Journal of the American Heart Association,included the following:

? 15% of the people who would betreated based on LDL would not be treated based on ApoB

?25% of the people who would notbe treated based on LDL would be treated based on ApoB

? Overall, about 1 in 5 peoplewould have had a different treatment recommendation if the decision were based on ApoBinstead of LDL