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Grandparent News
Senior Citizens with High Cholesterol May Have
Passed It to Grandchildren Who Should be Tested
Children should be screened at 15 months for familial
hypercholesterolaemia, their parents, too, say British researchers
 Sept.
14, 2007 Senior citizens with high levels of bad cholesterol may have
passed the life-threatening ailment down to their grandchildren, and
researchers say children should have their cholesterol checked as young
as 15 months to prevent heart disease later in life.
High cholesterol which runs in families is known as
familial hypercholesterolaemia. It affects about two in every 1000
people and causes very high levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) or
bad cholesterol in the blood. It carries a high risk of death from
coronary heart disease.
Treatment to lower cholesterol reduces the risk
substantially, but there is uncertainty over what screening strategy is
likely to be effective, according to a report published today at
bmj.com (British Medical Journal).
Researchers at Barts and the London Queen Mary's
School of Medicine and Dentistry analyzed published studies on total and
LDL cholesterol in people with and without familial
hypercholesterolaemia to determine the efficacy of screening and the
best age to do this.
They identified 13 studies involving 1,907 cases
and 16,221 controls.
They found that screening was most effective if
done in early childhood (1-9 years). Screening at this age detected 88%
of affected individuals, while screening newborns and young adults was
much less effective.
Based on these results, the authors suggest that
children could be screened when they visit their doctor for routine
vaccinations at about 15 months of age.
Once an affected child is identified, their parents
would then also be screened, since, given the inheritance of this
disorder, for every affected child there would be one affected parent.
Treatment to lower cholesterol could then be initiated immediately in
the affected parent and delayed in the child until adulthood.
A potential strength of screening at the time of
childhood immunization, they explain, is that it would take place at a
time when parents are receptive to the possibility of preventing disease
in their child and therefore may be receptive to a family based strategy
to prevent the consequences of the same disease within the family as a
whole.
The proposed strategy screens for familial
hypercholesterolaemia in two generations simultaneously and offers the
potential of preventing premature coronary heart disease in nearly
everyone with the disorder.
 More About Familial Hypercholesterolaemia
From MedlinePlus
Individuals from families with a strong history of
early heart attacks should be evaluated with a lipid screen. Proper
diet, exercise, and the use of newer drugs can bring
lipids (fats in the blood) down to safer levels.
Symptoms
● A strong family history of familial
hypercholesterolemia or early heart attack
● Elevated and therapy-resistant levels of
LDL in either or both parents
● Xanthomas (lesions caused by
cholesterol rich lipoprotein deposits)
● Cholesterol deposits in the eyelids (xanthelasmas)
● Chest pain (angina)
associated with
coronary artery disease
● Evidence of
obesity
>>
Click to more at MedlinePlus
From Wikipedia
In
medicine, familial hypercholesterolemia (also spelled familial
hypercholesterolaemia) is a rare
genetic disorder characterised by very high
LDL cholesterol and early
cardiovascular disease running in families.
Click for more from Wikipedia
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