Familial hypercholesterolemia raises risk of two other diseases

Patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) are at increased risk of peripheral arterial disease and chronic kidney disease, a prospective study confirms.

Ankle-brachial index and eGFR are also independently associated with risk of MI in these patients, Danish researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 

The findings suggest that patients with FH should be routinely screened for peripheral arterial disease, and those found to be high risk may benefit from more intensive lipid-lowering treatment, say the authors.

The authors looked at data from more than 106,000 participants in the Copenhagen General Population Study, including 6623 (6.2%) with possible FH and 488 (0.5%) with probable/definite FH based on Dutch Lipid Clinic Network criteria scores.

Individuals with possible or probable/definite FH were significantly more likely to