Hypercolesterolemia

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Familial hypercholesterolemia is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The current international guidelines of the main scientific societies consider that, all people with Familial Hypercholesterolemia have a high or very high cardiovascular risk. However, the occurrence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is very heterogeneous in this population. Stratifying risk within people with familial hypercholesterolemia is essential to identify individuals who require intensive cholesterol-lowering therapies...

Familial hypercholesterolemia is an autosomally dominant disorder caused by various mutations in low-density lipoprotein receptor genes. This can lead to premature coronary atherosclerosis and cardiac-related death. The symptoms are more severe in the homozygous type of the disease. Premature malignant atherogenesis leading to aortic root abnormalities causing supravalvular aortic stenosis is rare. Our case demonstrates the diagnostic imaging findings of the phenotype of patients who have severe elevated LDL with familial hypercolesterolemia...

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Background Familial hypercholesterolemia is the elective clinical condition that deserves the maximal personalisation in lipid-lowering therapy, especially in the presence of statin intolerance. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors represent a promising approach to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Methods We enrolled 18 patients (mean age 62 ± 8 years, 72% men) affected by heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and cardiovascular disease, with a history of statin intolerance assigned to PCSK9 inhibitors...

BACKGROUND: To establish strategies for prevention of cardiovascular disease implies to know its epidemiology and evolution in time. The objective of this study is to know the prevalence of risk factors and cardiovascular risk in two moments during the following of a grownup general population. METHODS: Study of cohorts, followed at random selected general population during 12 years (1992-94 to 2204-06). Two transversal studies were made, one at the beginning and the other one at the end of this follow-up...

Simvastatin has been shown to restore endothelial function in children with familial hypercolesterolemia after 28 weeks of treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate 1-month simvastatin treatment effect on endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic children and adolescents. Eighteen hypercholesterolemic patients (HC group) and 18 healthy controls, aged 6-18 years, were studied with medical history, physical examination, full lipid profile, serum apolipoprotein B (apo B), fibrinogen, hepatic transaminases, and creatine kinase concentrations...

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the relationship between smoking and erectile dysfunction (ED). METHODS: To provide further data on this issue, we analysed information gathered from men attending a free andrologic consultation in 234 Italian medical centres, in the setting of a project focused on andrologic prevention. Men were asked about "their ability to achieve and maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance". If they were dissatisfied, they were defined as having ED...

Cognitive impairment is an invalidating condition and its prevalence increases significantly with age. It is very important to identify the risk factors for cognitive impairment. Aside from age, sex, familiary history and educational level, the other major risk factors (hypertension, hypercolesterolemia, diabetes mellitus and tobacco), known to be associated frequently with different cerebrovascular diseases, might also contribute to degenerative forms of cognitive impairment because they might favour cerebral microvascular alterations with hypoperfusion, demyelinization and ischemic lesions of subcortical white matter...

BACKGROUND: The activity of nicotinic acid in hypercholesterolemia has been poorly understood. In man, nicotinic acid derives for the most part from tryptophan along the tryptophan-nicotinic acid pathway, also called the kynurenine pathway, kynurenine being the key metabolite in this process. In the present paper, we investigated if, in animals with hypercolesterolemia, degradation of tryptophan to nicotinic acid along the kynurenine pathway was perturbated. METHODS: Liver, kidney and intestine enzyme activities of the tryptophan-nicotinic acid pathway in normolipidemic, diet-induced hyperlipidemic New Zealand and heritable hypercholesterolemic Watanabe (WHHL) rabbits were determined...

Epidemiological, clinical and experimental evidence is available indicating that male subjects develop hypertension with a higher probability than age-matched females. The sexual dimorphism of blood pressure (BP) has been observed both in normotensive and hypertensive subjects. In order to analyze the presence of sexual dimorphism of arterial hypertension (AH) and its relationship to the aging process - particularly to the menopause - the population screened in the Camerano Study has been examined. In addition, to evaluate sex-related differences in the AH, another sample of 3765 patients from our Hypertension Centre has also been considered...

Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in end-stage renal failure treated by hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Though reduced in renal transplant recipients compared to the dialysis population, an excess cardiovascular mortality is still present after transplantation. The authors are reviewing the main data on mortality in the renal transplant population, focusing on major risk factors: ischaemic heart disease, hypercolesterolemia, smoking, hyperhomocysteinemia. The presence of these factors and the extent of cardiac and vascular abnormalities in the dialytic patient are closely related to outcomes in the post-transplant period...

BACKGROUND: Collateral circulation is severely compromised in patients who have a limited degree of spontaneous myocardial angiogenesis and arteriogenesis. METHOD: To determine the clinical characteristics associated with angiographic apparent collaterals (AAC) and myocardial blush score (MBS), this study compared the clinical variables in various AAC and MBS grades (0 = no, 1 = minimal, 2 = moderate and 3 = maximal collaterals defined by the two variables) among a consecutive group of 112 patients (aged 62 +/- 12 years, 76% men) with a native artery chronic total coronary occlusion studied by selective coronary angiograms...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Extracranial cerebrovascular atherosclerosis is a common feature of hypercholesterolemia and carotid lesions are good predictors of cardiovascular events in the general population. Factors associated with the carotid damage of hypercholesterolemic patients and their relationships with the occurrence of clinical events are investigated in this study. METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred and seventeen cardiovascular event-free hypercholesterolemic subjects underwent a complete clinical examination to look for additional risk factors...

UNLABELLED: Increasingly over the past several years, patients have returned after coronary surgery for reintervention procedures. This reflects immediate postsurgical complications and the relentless progression of coronary artery disease in the native circulation and in the bypass grafts. Although there are randomized comparative data for coronary bypass surgery (CABG) versus percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and medical therapy, these trials have always excluded patients with previous (GABG)...

UNLABELLED: Chlamydia pneumoniae (C.p.) has been correlated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). High levels of anti-C.p. antibodies and circulating immune complexes containing C.p. lypopolyaaccharide (LPS) antigens have been demonstrated in AMI. LPS antigen and especially Chlamydial LPS is one of the best antigen and it is also a very good Interleukin inductor. Moreover, interleukin 6 (IL-6) has been observed in AMI patients. The aim of our study was to assess the possible relationships between anti-C...

This study has sought to characterize the prevalence of lipemic disorders and other risk factors of atheroschlerotic cardiovascular disease in population groups of Cotia county in Greater S. Paulo, Brazil. The population groups were defined on the basis of socio-economic characteristics and geographical location within the county such as provided elements for the delimitation of the "study areas". A sample representative of each of these areas was taken, constituting in all 1,041 individuals. The data related to eating habits were collected from a sub-sample of 568 people...

We studied 20 children with a clinical picture and laboratory study suggestive of hepatic glycogenosis. The age of the beginning of symptoms varied from birth to 24 months and the age at the diagnosis varied from 2 to 81 months. Hepatomegaly was found in all patients, diarrhea in 65% (13/26), "doll-face" in 55% (11/20) and convulsions in 50% (10/20). Nutritional evaluation showed more height deficiency than weight deficiency. Laboratory tests showed elevation of hepatic transaminases (12/19), hypercolesterolemia (8/14), hyperuricemia (6/17) and hypoglycemia (6/20)...

Chronic arterial occlusive disease of lower limbs is recognized as a typical multifactorial disease, but the role of some risk factors is still debated, because contrasting results have been obtained in epidemiological studies. We investigated the prevalence of hypercolesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension, smoking habits and diabetes in a population of 172 patients with peripheral arterial disease admitted to the III and V Medical Division of the "Ospedale Regionale" of Parma in the period January 1979 - April 1983, and in a control group of 174 subjects comparable for age and sex, free of clinical symptoms or signs of atherosclerosis...

We have studied prospectively 157 patients with stroke admitted at University Hospital and Hospital Santa Genoveva in Uberlandia, Brazil at the point of view of clinics and epidemiology. Incidence was 0.8/1000 peoples/year and early letality of stroke victims was 40%, only 30% had returned to work. Complete infarct account for 36.3% of the cases and was predominant in white man among stroke population. Hypertension (in 55% of the cases), Chagas' disease (26.1%), transient isquemic attack (22.7%) and hypercolesterolemia were the main risk factors for stroke in this region...