Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia Workshop

Abstract

On April 17 and 18, 1986, a workshop on familial combined hyperlipidemia was held at the Battelle Conference Center, Seattle, Washington. The term familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL) was first used by Joseph Goldstein and associates at the University of Washington to designate families exhibiting multiple lipoprotein phenotypes. At the same time, similar families were described by Esko Nikkilä in Helsinki and Herbert Rose in New York. Affected members of families with FCHL can have elevations of plasma total cholesterol, triglyceride, or both. These elevations reflect increases in very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and/or low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Since the initial description of FCHL, many investigators have noted the occurrence of multiple lipoprotein phenotypes in single families, usually those in which there is a high frequency of premature vascular complications.

Reprinted from Arteriosclerosis, vol. 7: 209–213, 1987, with permission from the American Heart Association.