[Clofibrate therapy in hypercholesterolemia. Reports on medium-long-term movements of HDL- cholesterol by the action of clofibrate].

Clofibrate was administered to 5 selected outpatients suffering from type IIa hyperlipoproteinaemia who had previously undergone dietetic treatment, and one female patient suffering from hypo-HDL-aemia in order to elucidate the question as to whether medium long term clofibrate therapy apart from producing an initial increase relative to the LDL concentration may also lead to an absolute increase in the concentration of HDL cholesterol in serum. According to our findings daily doses of 1 to 2 g clofibrate increase the concentrations of HDL cholesterol and phospholipids within two to four months after therapy was started. These increases remained unchanged within four to eight weeks after having reduced the dose to half its original level. Subsequent HDL cholesterol levels still range above those of the controls prior to clofibrate treatment. After a further clofibrate dose at the original dose level it takes again four to eight weeks until the HDL cholesterol level increases again. Thus, during medium long term therapy the quantitative effect of clofibrate on the lipoprotein pattern is similar to that of bezafibrate and etofibrate. It is only the latency period of an increase in serum concentration of HDL cholesterol that differs: it is longest for clofibrate, shortest for etofibrate, with bezafibrate obviously being right in the middle.