Lipid Test May Aid Women on HRT

Following the finding of a link between hormone replacement therapy (HRP) and increased risk of heart disease, doctors may want women patients receiving HRT to have a special lipid test to better determine their cardiac risk.

The test, called NMR LipoProfile, uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to measure the number and size of lipoproteins in a blood sample. Anything that raises triglycerides, such as some HRT regimens, creates more small, dense low-density lipoproteins, which are most likely to cause arterial plaque, according to Thomas Dayspring, M.D., clinical instructor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark, USA) and a lipid specialist. However, small lipoproteins carry lesser amounts of cholesterol. Thus, low-density lipoproteins drop in women using most hormone therapies but the cholesterol is now in a lipoprotein particle more likely to invade the artery wall.

"Over the years, we've seen that lipoprotein analysis is a more accurate predictor of heart disease risk than the traditional lipid profile,” said Dr. Dayspring. "This is an extremely opportune time for physicians to use the test to help these women. If hormone therapy was adversely affecting lipoproteins, such testing would be likely to reveal that fact.”

The LipoProfile is the product of LipoScience (Raleigh, NC, USA).




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Univ. Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
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