WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - Measuring a type of blood fat called triglycerides hours after a person has eaten may offer a better way to predict heart disease risk than making the person fast overnight, two studies suggest.

The studies, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday, may be good news for patients who are often told to fast before a physical, doctors said.

The findings came in a U.S. study involving about 26,500 women and a separate Danish study involving about 7,600 women and 6,400 men.

Triglyceride levels are usually measured after a person has fasted for a number of hours, which can be inconvenient for patients. But these studies indicated testing for triglycerides in nonfasting patients might yield better information.

Doctors usually test for triglyceride levels as part of a thorough blood cholesterol screening.

"The new data are a win-win for clinicians and for patients because, for the physician, we understand more about the importance of triglycerides. And it's now much more convenient for the patient," Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a researcher on one of the studies, said in a telephone interview.

Measuring triglyceride levels with the patient fasting could exclude certain particles that are a possible risk factor for atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, the researchers said.

The Danish researchers found that in men and women, incidence of heart attack, heart disease and death rose as people's levels of nonfasting triglyceride levels increased.

Ridker's team also found that higher nonfasting triglyceride levels were strongly associated with increased risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular conditions. They found that fasting triglyceride levels showed little association with these medical problems.

The evidence was particularly strong in the people who had their blood drawn 2 to 4 hours after eating a meal, the researchers said.

Ridker said that when a patient comes in for cholesterol testing, a thorough assessment should include total cholesterol, HDL (high density lipoprotein or so-called good cholesterol), LDL (low density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol), CRP (C-reactive protein) and nonfasting triglycerides.

REUTERS