Prevalence of hyperlipidemia in a large sample population.

In recent times, increasing attention has been focused on serum lipid levels as a risk factor for coronary heart disease. With an extremely large data base available at Metpath clinical laboratory--more than 3 million cholesterol and triglyceride determinations, and over 500,000 high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol analyses performed yearly on ambulatory asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals seen by primary care office-based physicians in the United States--an investigation was undertaken to provide a clear indication of the actual prevalence of hyperlipidemia in this country. All lipid measurements were performed routinely by standard automated procedures at one laboratory site, and the test results were analyzed statistically. Computer analysis clearly shows that hyperlipidemia is the most prevalent disorder detected in samples sent to this laboratory. According to the American Heart Association's criterion for elevated cholesterol levels (260 mg/dl and above), our figures show that 41.6 percent of females and 34.2 percent of males tested in the United States are hypercholesterolemic. Cholesterol levels were observed to rise steadily after the age of 20 and to decline after age 60 in men and age 70 in women. Similar analysis for HDL cholesterol shows that 12.2 percent of men and 4.2 percent of women over 49 years of age have HDL cholesterol levels below 35 mg/dl, which, according to the guidelines from the Framingham Heart Study, would be classified as being at high risk for coronary heart disease. The mean HDL cholesterol level was about 10 mg/dl higher in women of all ages than in men of all ages. Diagnostic approaches to hyperlipidemia and clinical implications are discussed, and a guide for predicting the risk of coronary heart disease is provided.