Acute lipidemic effect of calcium heparin in normolipemic and hyperlipemic subjects.

The Authors investigated the lipidometabolic effects of calcium heparin in order to assess if the antiatherogenic usefulness of the drug, recently demonstrated in the treatment of thrombosis and myocardial reinfarction, may be linked to its hypolipemiant property in addition to the antithrombotic one. The series consists of 25 normal-weight subjects (9 m, 16 f, mean age 68 +/- 5, RBW 107 +/- 3) of whom 11 were normolipemics (group A) and 14 hyperlipemics (group B) suffering from hyperlipoproteinemia of type IIA (4 cases), IIB (6 cases) and IV (4 cases). After an overnight fasting each subject was given calcium heparin (12,500 Units in a single dose subcutaneously); before and after 20', 1 hr, 2 hr and 6 hr venous blood samples were taken; for each sample plasma levels of triglyceride, total LDL-, total HDL-, HDL-3-, HDL-2-cholesterol, apoprotein CII, and apoprotein CIII were determined. In group A and B, triglycerides showed a significant reduction and total cholesterol a slight one, the "minima" being at the 1st hour after the heparinoid stimulus; the triglyceride reduction was more evident (8%) in group A than in group B (17%). In group A, total HDL-, HDL-2- and HDL-3-cholesterol decreased significantly (P less than 0.01) with a "nadir" at the 2nd hr in group B; total HDL-cholesterol did not change, whereas HDL-3-cholesterol decreased (P less than 0.05) and HDL-2 cholesterol increased (P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)