Primary and secondary hypocholesterolemia

Hypocholesterolemia is characterized by serum total cholesterol that is lower than the 5th percentile for age and sex, or the cut-off value which predicts the adverse prognosis by epidemiological study. Unlike hypercholesterolemia, physicians pay less attention to the morbidity, causes and consequences of hypocholesterolemia in clinical practice. In fact, hypocholesterolemia is a common dislipidemia, and mainly results from secondary factors. The causes of primary hypocholesterolemia are some disorders owing to genetic mutation in the pathway of cholesterol absorption, biosynthesis or metabolism, including abetalipoproteinemia, hypobetalipoproteinemia, Tangier disease, chylomicron retention disease and inherited disorders of cholesterol biosynthesis. The causes of secondary hypocholesterolemia comprise anemia, hyperthyroidism, malignancy, live disease, critical illness, serious stress, malabsorption or malnutrition, acute or chronic infection, chronic inflammation, and use of some drugs. In addition, what's more important is that hypocholesterolemia can result in some adverse events, such as increased mortality, intracerebral hemorrhage, cancer, infection, adrenal failure, suicide and mental disorder. Therefore, with the practice of intensive lipid-lowering treatment and the tendency to the increased indications of statins, it's high time that physicians attached more importance to hypocholesterolemia. Language: zh