ABSTRACT
Abnormalities in lipid metabolism and particularly in blood lipoprotein profi le lead to atherosclerosis development and are strongly associated to the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and peripheral artery disease (PAD) (Salonen et al. 1983, Pocock et al. 1989, Criqui et al. 1993, Okamura 2010). Dyslipidemia is a disorder of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism characterized by raised blood concentration of total cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride (TG) associated or not to a decrease in the circulating concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL). Anitschkow (1913), almost 100 years ago fi rst described the association between elevated concentration of circulating cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Actually, it is well known that lower HDL and elevated LDL blood concentrations are associated to increased cardiovascular mortality due to formation of atherosclerotic plaques in coronary and carotid arteries (Criqui et al. 1993).
