Lipid profiles in spinal cord injury.

Measurement of blood levels of total cholesterol and lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) were conducted on 96 men with spinal cord injury, 46 paraplegics and 50 quadriplegics. All these patients were studied in the stabilized phase of the disease as a follow up to the rehabilitation process. The study was designed to compare results with a normal, able bodied population and to investigate if any abnormal finding could be related to the age at onset of the spinal cord injury, the duration of the disease or the level of the lesion. Compared to the normal, able bodied population, this study indicates that patients with a spinal cord injury do not have higher levels of cholesterol or LDL, nor lower levels of HDL. Levels of total cholesterol increase with aging, as in the normal population, but have no relation to the duration of the disease or the level of the lesion. Blood levels of HDL and LDL do not seem to be related either to the duration of the disease or to the level of the lesion.