Toddlers 'should be tested for cholesterol to prevent heart disease in later life'

They say a blood test should take place at the same time as vaccinations at the age of 15 months.

This is the point at which cholesterol levels start to rise among victims of a condition that can lead to heart attacks in the 20s and 30s.

The parents of children found to be at risk would also be tested for the condition, called familial hypercholesterolaemia, which is high cholesterol that runs in families.

Affected adults and older children could then be given cholesterollowering drugs such as statins, say the researchers at Bart's Hospital in London and Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Consultant cardiologist Dr David Ward, who led the research, said mass testing would be worth it to identify those at risk, even though there are no cost estimates.

He said: "Adults aged 20 to 39 with the condition have a risk of dying from coronary heart disease that is 100 times more than that of people without the condition.

"I know I would think it was worth doing if I had this condition without knowing it."

Familial hypercholesterolaemia affects about one in every 500 people.

The research, reported today in the British Medical Journal, examined 13 studies involving 1,907 people with FH, compared with 16,000 healthy people.

It found among children screened between the ages of one and nine that detection rates for FH were an estimated 88 per cent.

Follow-up screening on the parents of a child with FH, compared with 16,000 healthy people.

It found among children screened beteen the ages of one and nine that detected the ages of one and nine that detection rates for FH were an estimated 88 per cent.

Follow-up screening on the parents of a child with FH could also identify the affected parent 96 per cent of the time.

The team proposed testing children aged about 15 months, when they usually have their measles, mumps and rubella jab.

Dr Ward said this was the stage when rising cholesterol could be easily distinguished.

He and his colleagues said that, over time, most families at risk would be identified through screening.

They said: "If, after a few decades, the uptake of screening were high enough, the need to test children at 15 months of age would disappear because all or nearly all affected individuals would be known and it would be necessary to test only the children of families with the disorder.

"The strategy has the potential to prevent a major cause of coronary heart disease in young adults."

However, Dr Tony Wierzbicki, chairman of the medical committee of Heart UK, the charity for those with high cholesterol, said screening young children was not necessarily the best way of identifying those at risk.

"We have got to think about screening because at the moment four-fifths of those at risk are not identified, but this is only one possible strategy," he said.

"Any screening proposal has to be practical and this raises questions about whether we should be identifying very young children at risk and then doing nothing about it for 20 years.

"It may be more sensible to pick them up at a later age.

"Some children should be treated at a young age but there is an issue about giving drugs to children and the practicalities of this have to be thought through."

June Davison, cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "All approaches should be considered, because - once identified - the condition can be treated and the consequences may be prevented."