The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Monday a new test that can help doctors better gauge heart disease risk. This test will mostly benefit African-American women who are at higher risk for certain heart ailments.

By using the test, doctors can now measure the inflammation caused by the growth of dangerous gunk in the arteries. This plaque makes a person prone to many cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

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The test can determine if the person is at risk of having a heart attack or stroke even if she doesn't have any cholesterol problems.

The test can also predict the risk oif future coronary disease in a person. African-American women are at higher risk for these diseases mainly because of their race and genetic make-up.

The cardiac test "may help health care professionals identify patients before they experience a serious CHD event, like a heart attack," detailed Director Alberto Gutierrez from the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health at the FDA.

More specifically, the test can measure the lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) in the blood that determines if artery-narrowing plaques are increasing and irritating the lining of blood vessels.

Doctors can custom-order the test but American Heart Association expert Dr. Jenifer Mieres of the Office of Community and Public Health at North Shore-LIJ Health System suggested that a commercial version of the test must be easier to get and doctors will be more likely to use it.

To assess a person's risk of heart disease, which is primary cause of deaths in the U.S., doctors run lots of different tests. They measure the amount of cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, test the electrical signals that keep the heart beating and run imaging tests to check for clogged arteries.

Studies show that people with Lp-PLA2 levels above 225 also have a coronary heart disease rate of seven percent over the next five years.

People with lower levels only have a three percent rate. In this case, African-American women have much higher risk if their readings were high.

TagsHeart disease, black woman, FDA, cardiovascular diseases