Heart attack-prone families to be screened
Thousands of relatives of people with a defect that causes heart attacks are to be screened to see if they are also at risk.
Experts hope to identify up to 100,000 people with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a genetic defect that causes high cholesterol.
The condition causes the narrowing of the arteries to speed up, putting people at higher risk of heart attacks.
If left untreated, half of men with FH will have a heart attack by the age of 50 and a third of women will have one by the age of 60.
Around 15,000 people in the UK are known to have FH but health experts think around 95,000 more people are undiagnosed.
Doctors are being urged to screen as many of these first-degree relatives as possible and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) expects at least 50,000 will be identified as a result of the plan.
Nice recommends that children are tested before they are 10-years-old, but not before the age of two.
Changes to a young child's diet - such as introducing semi-skimmed instead of full-fat milk after the age of two - could help cut their cholesterol levels.
© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
