Medical management of hyperlipidemia and the role of probucol.

Recent experimental and epidemiologic evidence has dispelled all doubts about the need to treat patients with hyperlipidemia. Therapy should focus on 3 areas: control of concomitant risk factors for atherosclerosis, reduction of lipid levels through diet and, if response to diet proves inadequate, administration of lipid-lowering agents. There are 4 categories of first-line drugs: resins, fibrates, nicotinic acid and probucol. Probucol has a sustained effect, additive to that of a lipid-lowering diet; it can reduce total serum cholesterol and cause xanthoma regression even in patients with receptor-defective homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. It is effective when used alone and has an additive effect when combined with resins or nicotinic acid. Compared with many other lipid-lowering medications, it is well tolerated. Although the combination of probucol and clofibrate may cause a significant decrease in high density lipoproteins, there is no evidence that this decrease carries any adverse consequences for the underlying disease process.