New Blood Test Helps Predict Heart Disease Risk

A new immunoassay that measures the level of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is designed to aid doctors in assessing an individual's risk for heart disease. The test has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Lp-PLA2 is a platelet activating factor in the inflammatory process. Results from a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in 2003 showed that individuals with normal low-density lipoprotein (LDL) but elevated levels of Lp-PLA2 are twice as likely to experience a coronary event as those individuals with normal levels of both LDL and Lp-PLA2, independent of traditional risk factors and levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). Nearly half of all heart-attack patients show no signs of traditional risk factors. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed by diaDexus, Inc. (So. San Francisco, CA, USA).

"Somewhere between one-third and one-half of heart attacks occur in people considered to have normal LDL cholesterol. This test enables us to determine who is at risk for heart disease before an adverse event occurs,” said Christie Ballantyne, M.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX, USA), who presented the study.

Currently, research is underway to evaluate the effects of statin therapy on Lp-PLA2. In addition, an inhibitor to Lp-PLA2 is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline (London, UK) as a potential treatment for atherosclerosis.




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