Familial combined hyperlipidemia

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Coronary artery blockage

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Familial combined hyperlipidemia

Alternative Names:

Multiple lipoprotein-type hyperlipidemia

Treatment:

The goal of treatment is to reduce the risk of atherosclerotic heart disease.

The first step is to change what you eat. This is tried for several months before drug therapy is added. Diet changes include reducing total fat intake to less than 30% of the total calories consumed. Saturated fat intake is reduced by decreasing the amounts of beef, chicken, pork, and lamb; by substituting low-fat dairy products for full-fat ones; and by eliminating coconut and palm oil. Cholesterol intake is reduced by eliminating egg yolks and organ meats.

Further reductions in dietary fat may be recommended after the initial trial period. Dietary counseling is often recommended to help people make these adjustments to their eating habits. Weight loss and regular exercise may also aid in lowering cholesterol levels.

Drug therapy may be initiated if diet, exercise, and weight loss efforts have not reduced the cholesterol levels after an adequate trial period. Various cholesterol reducing agents are available including:

Bile acid-sequestering resins (cholestyramine and colestipol)
Nicotinic acid
Lovastatin and other 'statin' drugs
Gemfibrozil
Probucol

Expectations (prognosis):

The probable outcome is related to early diagnosis and treatment and compliance with therapy. Untreated people are at risk for shortened life span due to heart attack and stroke. The person with 2 defective genes has such high lipids that they are unlikely to be able to reduce their risk of coronary artery disease to normal. Therefore, they are at increased risk of heart attack despite medical therapy.

Complications:

A complication is early atherosclerotic heart disease or myocardial tissue death due to lack of blood (infarction). The fatty deposits can affect the blood vessels to the brain causing an increase risk for stroke.

Calling your health care provider:

Call your health care provider if you experience warning symptoms of heart attack or your screening total cholesterol or triglycerides was found to be high.

Review Date: 4/20/2005
Reviewed By: Neal Sondheimer, M.D., PhD., Division of Genetics and Metabolism, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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