High serum cholesteryl ester transfer rates and small high-density lipoproteins are associated with young age in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Description

In this cross-sectional study of 347 patients with first myocardial infarction (MI), Zeller et al. investigated the relationship between cholesteryl ester transfer (CET) rates and age of first MI. CET rates were obtained from a tracer dose of radiolabelled HDL toward endogenous lipoproteins. One interesting finding of this investigation is that when patients were stratified into tertiles of CET rates, age at first MI was 58.0 years in the top tertile and 66.5 years in the bottom tertile. Moreover, the highest CET rates were found among patients with a low proportion of HDL2b particles and the highest levels of non-HDL cholesterol. In that group, mean age at first MI was 54 years and 72 years in the group with high HDL2b and low non-HDL cholesterol levels. These results are consistent with the potential role played by the cholesteryl ester transfer protein in the previously reported association between elevated triglyceride and low HDL cholesterol levels and premature coronary heart disease.