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Medical Forum / General / General / March 2007High total cholesterol in child
Hi, My nine year old son has a total cholesterol which is higher than the normal range (I think it is 5.2, we are from canada in case the scale look different from yours). After further blood test it turned out his HDL, the good cholesterol is almost double the average kid ! (I think the reading is 2.8) On the other hand his LDL and trigericide (spelling?) are withing the normal range, about half way between the upper and lower limit for what is considered 'normal'. The total cholesterol to HDL ratio is 2. >From my lay person's perspective since the reason why his total cholesterol seem high was because of his extra-ordinarily high HDL. But the pediatrician said we should still be concerned because the 'total cholesterol' is above normal, and he has a higher risk of coronary disease just because of that. On the contrary, our family physician does not think my son's case needs any special attention since it is the HDL that is high, not the other cholesterols. Who was right and who should I listen to ? buywheels@hotmail.com wrote in part: >Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > >Who was right and who should I listen to ? Family physician. -- Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA >Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > >Who was right and who should I listen to ? It is hard to know. Apparently there is increasing feeling that the simple dichotomy of HDL = good and LDL = bad is an over-simplification. It sounds like the child's situation is "not normal" (meaning simply, not common). So it is hard to know how it fits in. It would help if one knew why HDL was so high, but that may be hard to determine. Is it common there to be measuring the cholesterol of a 9 year old? Or was there some reason it came up? That might matter. Perhaps you could get the two docs to tell you more about how they see this. If you sound like you want to understand it better, and won't panic at uncertainty (and uncertainty is the one thing that is certain), perhaps they will help. re your spelling question: trigericide should be triglyceride -- which you may find useful as a search term. Ordinary fat or oil is mostly triglycerides -- glycerol with three fatty acids attached. bob > >Hi, > > [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > > bob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ bob, Great post. The original poster should consider having the child retested at another clinic or hospital since there may have been errors made related to the first blood test. If the results are the same, a liver function test should also be done to rule in or rule out liver problems since the liver is involved related to cholesterol levels. Jason ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks everyone for responding. My son's high total cholesterol was discovered by accident during a regular blood test. He is not over- weight, eats healthy and does exercise regularly. When the pediatrician saw the result he ordered another blood test for different kinds of cholesterols. Is there any concensus in the medical profession about whether high HDL can lead to problems ? > Is there any concensus in the medical profession about whether high > HDL can lead to problems ? Online sources say 8-10% of the population has it. In general it is cardioprotective but if it is high due to certain mutations it could actually be artherogenic. This is an area of controversy. For example some mutations in the CETP (target of the recent failed Pfizer drug) are linked to high HDL levels and increased heart disease risk. See for example: http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/101/16/1907 I would not be alarmed. I think the physician who wanted more tests may just be being very thorough. You would need to go to a very advanced testing environment (Cleveland clinic type place) to really be able to get definitive answers. Try asking your question (mention CETP mutants so they don't give you off the cuff high HDL is good) and ask them whether it is worth evaluating further and how to proceed. on: http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/wwwboard.html Roland |
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