LIPID PROFILE IN THE FIRST-DEGREE RELATIVES OF PATIENTS WITH PRECOCIOUS CORONARY HEART-DISEASE IN ROHTAK AREA (NORTHERN INDIA)

Twenty-five patients with precocious coronary heart disease (CHD) (age d forty years or less) and 82 first-degree relatives were studied for lipid profile. Eighty-eight age- and sex-matched controls were also st udied. The mean serum cholesterol, triglycerides, low density lipoprot ein cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and total c holesterol/high density lipoprotein cholesterol of patients and their first-degree relatives were significantly higher as compared with norm al controls. High density lipoprotein cholesterol values were found to be almost identical in the patient group, their first-degree relative s, and normal controls, Hyperlipidemia was found in 68% of patients wi th CAD, of their first-degree relatives, and 24% of controls. Almost a ll lipid fractions in relatives of hyperlipidemic patients paralleled those of the patients suffering from CHD. Of 25 families studied, 16 h ad hyperlipidemia. In conclusion, it can be stated that there is a sta tistically significant hyperlipidemia in young patients with CHD that has a significant familial clustering, thus delineating a group of hig h-risk individuals (first-degree relatives of young coronary patients) for possible primary prevention of CHD. This familial clustering coul d be due to genetic or environmental factors; however, the relative co ntribution of these two factors requires further investigation.