Atherogenic dyslipidemia and the metabolic syndrome.

INTRODUCTION High serum cholesterol has been known as being a main risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). A number of types of evidence support the cholesterol-CHD link, these include researches in laboratory animals, epidemiological studies, findings of premature CHD in genetic forms of hypercholesterolemia, laboratory investigations, and clinical trials of cholesterol-lowering therapy. Most people with high serum cholesterol also have elevated LDL because much of the serum cholesterol is transported in LDL. Therefore, the emerging concept is that the predominant atherogenic lipoprotein is LDL.1a