Study: Heart risks rise with high triglycerides even if cholesterol normal

June 20, 2000
Web posted at: 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Independent of cholesterol levels, a pattern of elevated blood fats called triglycerides in families can predict the risk of heart-attack deaths years in advance, a medical study has shown.

While many people realize that high cholesterol increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, the new study is the first to provide evidence that even when cholesterol is normal, increased triglycerides can predict a two- to three-fold increase of deaths by cardiovascular disease.

The study also "illustrates the need for effective prevention strategies" against heart disease among members of families with both high triglycerides and cholesterol, said Melissa A. Austin, Ph.D., of the department of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

She reported the study in this week's edition of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Physicians often speak to patients about a "lipid profile," leading many people to think only of cholesterol levels. Part of the profile that receives little attention is the level of triglycerides, also long associated with heart disease.

Losing weight through diet and exercise is a common phrase in doctor-patient conversations about prevention and treatment of many vascular diseases.

"Of all the cholesterol parameters that we measure in the blood, triglycerides are the ones that are most exquisitely sensitive to even the most modest reduction in weight," said Dr. David Vorchheimer of Mount Sinai Hospital.

The 20-year study, conducted by Austin and others, used medical information collected in the early 1970s from 101 families in which cardiovascular disease was prevalent and levels of triglycerides were high. Researchers during the 1980s and '90s traced the health status and cause of death for 685 family members.

It was the first study of its kind in several respects, according to Austin. "It is the first to follow families without high cholesterol levels and only high triglycerides," she said. "Some of our families did have high cholesterol, some had only high triglycerides, and others had both."

For most healthy people over 40, doctors recommend tests of cholesterol and triglycerides at least once a year. Since food can falsely elevate triglyceride levels in the blood, tests should be conducted when the patient has been fasting for 12 hours or so and has an empty stomach.

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Abstract of the American Heart Association's report on study

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