[Clinical value of the cholesterol test in patients with arteriosclerosis].

Capacity for the excretion of cholesterol (CS) and bile acids was studied, using an original cholesterol load test, in atherosclerotic patients. They showed reduced fecal excretion of neutral sterols and bile acids following cholesterol load, unlike normal subjects, whose respective values were increased irrespective of age. Fecal excretion of these substances was particularly low in second-type hyperlipoproteinemia. Atherosclerosis-related changes of sterol balance may be an evidence of latent incompetence of mechanisms of hepatic evacuation of substances that may be regarded as atherosclerotic risk factors.