Korean Circ J.  1994 Oct;24(5):672-682. 10.4070/kcj.1994.24.5.672.

The Measurement of Skin Cholesterol as an Index of Risks for Atherosclerosis

• Park JE
• Kim YK
• Yang MY

• KMID: 2229313
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.1994.24.5.672

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The diagnostic methods of atherosclerosis before the development of clinical diseases(such as angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction or peripheral vascular disease) are rather limited. The Russian doctors made the observations through the autopsy studies that there is a good correlation between the degree of atherosclersis or the cholesterol content of the aorta and the cholesterol content of the skin. We tried to investigate whether there is a significant degree of differences in the cholesterol content of the skin between the patietns with atherosclerotic disease(disease group), the patients who have not developed the clinical atheroscleric disease but have risk factors for atherosclerosis(risk group), and the normal control patients(normal group).
METHODS
The skin choleterol was extracted from the palm of the hands by the closed contact with the chemicals.
RESULTS
1) The skin cholesterol was 2.77+/-1.08/microg/cm2in the disease group, 2.47+/-1.13microg/cm2in the risk group, and 1.84+/-0.60microg/cm2in the control group, The difference between the disease group and the normal group was significant(p<0.001), but the difference between the disease group and the risk group was not significant. 2) When the skin cholesterol of 2.1microg/cm2was used as a criterion. its sensitivity and specificity to predict either the disease gorup or the risk group was 66.1% and 70.8%. 3) In addition to the skin cholesterol of 2.1microg/cm2or more, if we add a criteria of cholesterol >220mg/dl, or TC/HDL-C ratio >4:1, or Apo B/A ratio >0.9, these separated the normal group from either the disease group or risk group much beter. 4) There was no significant correlation between the skin cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Also there were not any significant correlations between the skin cholesterol and the LDL cholesterol, TC/HDL-C ratio or Apo B/A ratio.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above mentioned observations made by the Russian doctors and the present data showing significantly higher skin cholesterol level in the disease and risk group compared with normal control group, and little significant correlation between the skin cholesterol and the blood cholesterol level, it is likely that the skin cholesterol can be considered as an independent risk index for the atherosclerotic disease. Measuring the skin cholesterol by extraction of cholesterol from the palms of the hands may help predicting the presence or the risks of the atherosclerotic diseases.

MeSH Terms

Angina Pectoris
Aorta
Atherosclerosis*
Autopsy
Cerebral Infarction
Cholesterol*
Cholesterol, LDL
Hand
Humans
Myocardial Infarction
Risk Factors
Sensitivity and Specificity
Skin*
Cholesterol
Cholesterol, LDL