Effects of Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs on Serum Triglycerides

THE ASSOCIATION of elevated levels of blood cholesterol with an increased risk of manifest coronary artery disease is supported by a number of retrospective and prospective studies. Similar data linking elevated blood levels of triglycerides with coronary atherosclerosis are far less numerous. Using an indirect method of estimating triglycerides, Albrink et al¹ reported that serum triglyceride levels effected a far more clear-cut separation between a group of patients with previous myocardial infarction and a group presumed to be normal than did serum total cholesterol levels. Schrade et al,² employing a more direct method of determining triglycerides, also noted that a group of patients with prior myocardial infarction had a greater increase of serum triglycerides than of cholesterol as compared with a presumably normal group. A final decision as to whether serum triglycerides provide a better predictive index of future coronary artery disease than does serum cholesterol will have