ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the lipid classes and their relationship to coronary disease. It suggests that low high density lipoproteins cholesterol might be a three times stronger predictor for the ischemic heart disease in these relatively young men than high low density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol concentration. Serum total cholesterol concentration has long been acknowledged as one of the major risk factors of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. When comparing lipid profiles in men and women having ischemic heart disease with healthy men and women, serum total cholesterol and triglycerides were lower in healthy men than in the ischemic heart disease patients. In vegetarians the serum cholesterol levels are low as in persons with hypobetalipoproteinemia; both groups have a low incidence of coronary heart disease. The concentrations of apoproteins present in very LDL and LDL fractions of lipoproteins were higher in patients with vascular disease, whether coronary or peripheral, than in controls.
