New Test Best Measure of Heart Risk Apo Predicts Disease Better
Than Cholesterol Feb. 27, 2003 -- Cholesterol, schmolesterol.
The name of the heart disease game is now ApoB, researchers are
telling doctors. It's not that cholesterol isn't important.
After all, more scientists have won Nobel Prizes from studying
cholesterol than any other molecule. But science has marched on.
Four huge clinical trials now show that there's a better single
measure of heart-disease risk than cholesterol levels. It's
called apolipoprotein or Apo for short. Apolipoproteins are tiny
fat particles floating in the blood. Having a lot of one kind of
Apo -- apolipoprotein B or ApoB -- means high risk of clogged
arteries and heart attack. A high ApoB count predicts heart
disease even better than a high level of "bad" LDL cholesterol,
argue Allan Sniderman, MD, and colleagues. This international
group of experts also argues that the ratio of ApoB to ApoA1
(another kind of Apo) tells doctors more than the ratio of LDL
cholesterol to "good