The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is likely to recommend the introduction of family screening for an inherited cholesterol disorder, it has been reported today.

It is probable that guidance from the independent organisation, which is due next week, will call for either family screening or cascade testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) by the age of ten, according to the BBC.

As such, this would mean that once an individual is diagnosed with FH, the rest of their family would also be screened - including cholesterol and DNA tests from blood samples to identify the specific genetic defect which causes FH - as the likelihood is that one in two of them will have inherited the condition.

Commenting on the news, Dr Dermot Neely, from the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle in the UK, tells the BBC: "We need to identify FH as early as possible to treat in childhood to prevent heart attacks in early adulthood.

"We have about 100,000 people with FH to find."

He adds that such screening would be unlikely to be a drain on public funds and, comparatively, would be significantly cheaper to carry out than some screening schemes currently in operation.

Login and visit the Cholesterol Knowledge Centre

• New game could help tackle obesity and diabetes in kids, expert claims 04/12/08
• Some "good cholesterol" not good enough, study suggests 02/12/08
• Study links grapes with reduced cardio risk 29/10/08
• Statins could prevent arterial ageing, study suggests 29/09/08
• Higher doses of statins may affect skeletal muscle regeneration, study suggests 25/09/08