ABSTRACT
Many diseases may be associated with hyperlipidaemia. In some instances they are linked because the hyperlipidaemia is the cause of the disease as, for example, in the case of coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebral ischaemia, peripheral arterial disease or pancreatitis. Frequently, however, another primary disease affects lipoprotein metabolism in such a way as to increase serum lipid concentrations, and that is the group of disorders that are properly regarded as secondary hyperlipidaemias. They are the subject of this chapter. There are yet other associations between hyperlipidaemia and diseases where no causal link between them has been established and where the treatment of neither affects the other. Perhaps the best example of this is hypertriglyceridaemia and gout. Although not truly a cause of hyperlipidaemia, gout is usually included with the secondary hyperlipidaemias and is thus considered in this chapter.
