Measuring Heart Health

    In an effort to determine the best measure of an individual?s heart health, researchers looked at low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (or "bad" cholesterol) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB). To investigate, the researchers looked at 1522 people in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. The participants went through examinations for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes risk factors. They were divided into 2 groups: 1 group would be treated based on their LDL levels, and the other group would be treated based 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 be treated based on LDL would not be treated based on ApoB 

?25% of the people who would not be treated based on LDL would be treated based on ApoB 

? Overall, about 1 in 5 people would have had a different treatment recommendation if the decision were based on ApoB instead of LDL