Skin cholesterol: test performance, evaluation of potential determinants and correlation analysis with cardiovascular risk factors and circulating markers of inflammation.
BACKGROUND
Skin cholesterol (SkC) has been suggested to be an additional risk predictor, so we evaluated the test performance, potential determinants of this marker as well as a potential correlation of SkC with markers of inflammation and the history of cardiovascular events.


METHODS
SkC, determined by the non-invasive PREVU POC Skin Sterol test, as well as serum lipids, the body fat status, high-sensitive CRP (hs-CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA) were evaluated in consecutive patients with and without documented atherosclerotic disease.


RESULTS
SkC was assessed in 201 patients. The within-day precision (CV) was 3.8%, the day-to-day CV of the right hand was 8.6% and 4.3% for the left hand, respectively. Neither univariate analysis nor multiple regressions identified a significant influence of age, sex, serum lipids, body fat status, smoking or diabetes mellitus on SkC, corresponding results were observed in a further analysis including 174 of these patients concerning hs-CRP and SAA (all p > 0.05). T-test analyses detected no significant differences between patients with and without a history of coronary, peripheral vascular and cerebrovascular events (all p > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The PREVU POC Skin Sterol test for the assessment of SkC proved an acceptable test performance. SkC is independent from serum lipids, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, two sensitive markers of systemic inflammation as well as the history of cardiovascular events indicating that the perception of this parameter as an established marker of vascular disease is premature.
Reiter
M
M
Clinic for Internal Medicine II, Department of Angiology, University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. markus.reiter@meduniwien.ac.at
Wirth
S
S
Pourazim
A
A
Exner
M
M
Baghestanian
M
M
Rumpold
H
H
Minar
E
E
Bucek
R A
RA
D000368:Aged; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001823:Body Composition; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018836:Inflammation Mediators / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D018836:Inflammation Mediators; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D002784:Cholesterol