Should pediatric patients with hyperlipidemia receive drug therapy?
Hyperlipidemia is now established as a major risk factor for causation of coronary heart disease (CHD) in adults; however, there is much debate on the level of coronary risk at which lipid-lowering drugs should be used. These issues of possible harm or lack of benefit from long-term use of lipid-lowering therapy, and cost effectiveness, are also pertinent in the pediatric setting. Evidence from several countries indicates that children have an increasing prevalence of obesity, hyperlipidemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Children who have high serum lipids ‘track’ these increased levels into adulthood. In some countries there is a trend to screen children for hypercholesterolemia. Family history itself is a poor discriminator in determining which children need to be screened and treated. Estimation of apolipoprotein B and/or apolipoprotein E genotype can improve prediction. Measuring high density lipoprotein cholesterol also helps, but obesity appears to be the best marker for screenin
