NEW CARDIOVASCULAR LIPID RISK-FACTORS

Each hyperlipidemia patient requires individual management. Treatment choices are thus made for each patient on the basis of evaluation of t heir overall cardiovascular risk. This evaluation involves four types of characteristics: those which cannot be changed (age, gender), class ical lipid and non-lipid risk factors, and finally cardiovascular stat us with two types of evaluation (clinical status and sub-clinical, ath erosclerosis). Three examples are presented here, enabling more precis e assessment of lipid risk: syndrome X which shows to what extent risk factors are often associated, combined familiar hyperlipidemia which emphasises the importance of family history, and lipoprotein (a). The latter is a risk factor relatively inaccessible to treatment but which enables better evaluation of the risk of the patient and choice of a stricter treatment goal when it is very high.