Cholesterol and heart disease: current concepts in pathogenesis and treatment.

One of the modifiable risk factors associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) is hypercholesterolemia. This paper reviews the major plasma lipids and how they relate to coronary heart disease. Among blacks, CHD is the leading cause of death and disability. Blacks, in general, have been found to have lower low density lipoprotein (LDL), lower very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), and higher high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels than whites, but there is some evidence to suggest that lipid and lipoprotein profiles may differ in middle and upper socioeconomic subgroups of the black population from those reported for lower socioeconomic groups.The results of the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Type II Coronary Intervention Study have shown that lowering cholesterol levels in persons with high blood cholesterol will decrease the rate of coronary heart disease events.Diet therapy is the mainstay of treatment, and may lower blood cholesterol levels by 10 to 15 percent. For those unresponsive to diet therapy alone, a number of hypolipidemic drugs are available; some drugs (cholestyramine and colestipol) work by increasing the clearance of lipoprotein and others (clofibrate, nicotinic acid, and probucol) decrease the production of lipoproteins. The combination of diet and drugs may result in a decrease in cholesterol levels of 30 percent or more. For each 1 percent that cholesterol is decreased, there is a 2 percent decrease in coronary heart disease events.