Lp(a) lipoprotein/pre-beta1-lipoprotein in Swedish middle-aged males and in patients with coronary heart disease.

A strong, positive association (P smaller than 0.0001) was found between the presence in serum of pre-beta1-lipoprotein upon electrophoresis in 0.5% agarose and the Lp(a+) phenotype in a series of 103 males aged 50-52 years participating in a health control study and in a series of 58 patients with sustained myocardial infarction. Both lipiprotein phenomena were more prevalent in the 58 patients than in the 103 presumably healthy males. The lack of any significant difference between total cholesterol values in the patients and the controls, despite the higher frequency of phenotype Lp(a+) in the former group, argues against the suggestion by Walton et al. (1974) that the increased Lp(a+) frequency in patients with coronary artery disease may be caused by a general increase in the concentration of low density lipoproteins (LDL).