[Content of cholesterol extracted from human skin surface--a possible discriminant of atherosclerosis?]

Basing on the data of Bouissou et al. on an increase of cholesterol content in the skin biopsies in atherosclerosis patients, the cholesterol amount was evaluated after superficial atraumatic rapid treatment of patients palm skin. The optimization of the extraction conditions was performed: the surface skin cholesterol value was constant for individual subjects (variability factor 5%). The range of this value was 1.5-6 Mg/cm2 and it was higher for atherosclerotic patients. No correlations with any conventional plasma lipoprotein parameters were observed. At the same time positive correlation (r = 0.54. p < 0.01) was observed with dyslipoprotein coefficient--(Ch+TG/alpha-Ch). Possible diagnostic significance of this skin cholesterol parameter is discussed.