Hyperlipidemia in School Children with Family Histories of Premature Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Children starting their schooling were given a questionnaire asking about the occurrence of premature (before 50 years of age in men, 55 years in women) coronary heart disease (CHD) in first degree relatives. 1,920 of 2,069 questionnaires were answered, 140 of the 7-year-old children were reported to have a first degree relative with premature CHD, 84 of these 140 families agreed to participate in our study. In 79 of the 84 families both the child and the parent at 'high risk' were tested. In the initial test 19 of 84 children had total cholesterol (TC) levels above the 95th percentile (greater than 5.35 mmol/l). In the repeat test 12 of the 19 TC tests remained abnormal and all 12 also had LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels above the 95th percentile (greater than 3.40 mmol/l). None had abnormal HDL-cholesterol or triglyceride levels. Among the high risk parents, 12 of 79 had abnormal initial blood lipid tests. In the repeat test 10 parents had both TC and LDL-C levels above the 95th percentile. In five families both the child and the parent had abnormal TC and LDL-C levels. In conclusion, a considerable proportion of children and parents with family histories of premature CHD have TC and LDL-C concentrations above the 95th percentile (in the present study, about 40 individuals in 140 high-risk families, if the parent and child considered at high risk all had agreed to participate). Prevention of heart disease should begin in childhood when patterns of life-style are developed. Identification by obtained family histories as in the current study may be a method of choice.

Serum Lipids, Lipoproteins and Apolipoproteins in Children With and Without Familial History of Premature Coronary Heart Disease

“…On the basis of a small questionnaire concerning familial premature cardial events, Sveger et al [14] investigated 84, 7-year-old offspring of risk families and found that 14% of these children had elevated TC and LDL-C values compared with a control group of 41. Lee and coworkers [15] studied 173 progenies from families in which the fathers had angiographically diagnosed coronary artery disease by 50 years of age.…”

Hereditary dyslipidaemias and combined risk factors in children with a family history of premature coronary artery disease

“…If the NECP-Peds guidelines are applied, about one in five children will have at least one major screening indicator 1213 It was therefore mainly for practical reasons that we chose to define premature CAD as symptoms of CAD occurring before or at age 50 years in men and 55 in women (cf 55 years for both men and women in the NCEP-Peds guidelines) both in the present and previous study 7. Lessons from previous studies also indicated that few parents were aware of their cholesterol concentration.…”

Perfil de lípidos en recién nacidos sanos y su correlación con los niveles de lípidos maternos

“…7 La influencia de los aspectos genéticos se ha determinado a partir de observaciones hechas entre los descendientes de padres con problemas isquémicos coronarios, quienes tienen un mayor riesgo de ser portadores de alteraciones en las lipoproteínas. [8][9][10] En Estados Unidos de América (EUA) y algunos países europeos se han efectuado mediciones séri-cas de colesterol en varones de entre 5 y 9 años de edad y, aun cuando los hábitos dietéticos y patrones de herencia varían, se han obtenido valores promedio similares; sin embargo, las repercusiones a largo plazo, medidas a partir de la mortalidad atribuida a enfermedad cardiovascular en varones de entre 33 y 49 años de edad, difieren de un país a otro debido, probablemente, a diversos factores ambientales. 11,12 En México se han realizado estudios 9 en grupos de edad de entre 5 y 18 años, todos ellos en comunidades rurales e indígenas; al comparar las cifras de colesterol observadas en estos estudios con las obtenidas en comunidades de EUA, se encontró que las primeras eran marcadamente inferiores.…”