Is Hypertriglyceridemia an Independent Risk Factor for Coronary Heart Disease?

It is s tili controvers ia l whether isolated hypertriglyceridemia is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) in the absence of high lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) or low highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) levels. In unvariate analyses hypertriglyceridemia was found to be a risk factor. However, in multivariate analysis, in which all the risk factors are included, it has been shown that hypertriglyceridemia acts as a weaker ri sk factor especially due to the inverse ınetabol ic relationship between HDL-c and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLP). Hypertrigliyceridemia is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for CHD according to the evidences from various epidemiologic and angiographic studies. An epidemiologic study conducted in Turkey in 2000 also showed that hypertrigliyceridemia is an independent risk factor for CHD in women. It has been suggested that TRLPs by forming monocyte- macrophage derived, lipid-filled "foaın cells" just like oxid ized LDL cholesterol and caus ing endothe li a l eel ! dy sfunction initiate atherothrombos is . Furthermore, trig lyceride increases the CHD ri s k by e nh anc ing the atherogenicity of other lipoproteins. The definition of hypertriglyceridemia is important since it appeats to be a risk factor for CHD. In this review, we focused on the pathophysiological role of hypertriglyceridemia, and e linical and epidemiologic studies investigating whether it is a risk factor for CHD and triglyceride threshold levels.