[Effect of low dose omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on plasma lipids and lipoproteins in coronary patients with dyslipoproteinemia].

In a prospective study, 20 patients (aged 48-67 years) with primary hyperlipoproteinaemia of phenotypes IIa, IIb, IV and with proven coronary sclerosis received four different doses of long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. 0.18 to 1.1 g per day were administered in the form of fish oil capsules over four 2-week periods. The aim was to study the effect of different low dose supplementations of n-3 fatty acids on the plasmalipid- and lipoprotein composition and to determine a threshold of effectiveness. Significant reduction of the triglyceride level was registered in all subjects with the greatest decrease in those patients who presented with the highest base levels. The cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol values on average remained almost unchanged, apart from a significant increase of LDL-cholesterol in patients with type IV hyperlipoproteinaemia. The HDL-cholesterol fraction also showed a significant increase in type IIb patients which was related to alterations of the HDL-3 subfraction. The minimal effective dose of a daily administration of omega-3 fatty acids can be expected between 0.18 g and 0.35 g. The observed changes of plasmalipids and lipoproteins reflect the beneficial effect of long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids in respect to plasma-triglyceride reduction and HDL-cholesterol increase as seen in other studies, despite the use of supplementations far below 1 g per day.