HDL-cholesterol related to weight, smoking, and physical fitness in German Air Force pilots.

This study was undertaken to find out the importance of HDL-cholesterol in assessing coronary risk in our pilots. We related cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and the cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio in blood to the BROCA-Index, smoking, and relative PWC 150 in 589 individuals. We found positive correlations between the cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio to the BROCA-Index and to smoking. We did not find any correlation between cholesterol alone and the BROCA-Index or smoking. Moreover, we failed to find any correlations to physical fitness calculated from PWC 150. That may be due to the higher physical fitness standard in our pilots in comparison with the normal population. It is concluded, that a HDL-cholesterol determination is a more relevant parameter than cholesterol alone in borderline and elevated cholesterol levels.