Cholesterol

"They get a negative test," he said.

"The patient now has ammunition to push back and say, 'Why should I be on these medications?

' The test is just not accurate enough to distinguish between people who need treatment and who don't." Diamond said the $300 cost would be better spent covering the cost of insurance co-pays for a "That's a lot of money for something that is not going to change behavior very much," he said.

The test has been used in Europe primarily as a research tool and appears to add modest additional information over traditional measures for assessing heart disease risk, said Michiel Bots, a physician and associate professor of epidemiology at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

At the moment, Bots said, he is not in favor of using the test for large-scale screenings.

Still, the test can provide additional information above and beyond traditional risk assessment measures, said Alan Hirsch, a professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

"It's great to have a new technique," said Hirsch, who has done research for a firm that makes equipment used to do the test.

'A tremendous use'However, Hirsch said that before insurance companies be...

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