Abstract

More than 25 years ago, Barr et al noted the negative relationship between high density lipoprotein (HDL) and the incidence of coronary artery disease. A number of studies supported for it. Recently it was known that HDL-cholesterol is more useful indicator of coronary heart disease than total cholesterol and triglyceride. Author studied the difference of HDL-cholesterol levels and HDL-cholesterol/total cholesterol ratio between normal male and female subjects, and HDL-cholesterol level in patients of coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, liver disease and gastrointestinal malignancies. The results are as follows: 1) Mean HDL-cholesterol level of normal subjects was 44.7± 12.4 mg/d1 and those of female and male were 48.7±14.2 mg/dl and 41.9±10.1 mg/dl respectively. 2) HDL-cholesterol/total cholesterol ratio in female was higher than that of male. 3) HDL-cholesterol level in normal subjects showed no significant changes with age. 4) The difference between HDL-cholesterol levels in patients of coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus and that of normal subjects was insignificant. 5) HDL-cholesterol levels in patients of liver disease and gastrointestinal malignancies were lower than normal subjects.