Homocysteine increases the risk associated with hyperlipidaemia.

BackgroundThe European Concerted Action Project ‘Homocysteine and Vascular Disease’ showed that an elevated homocysteine is associated with a substantially increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and particularly when combined with other factors such as smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential interactions between homocysteine and individual lipid subfractions. In addition, it was hypothesized that HDL cholesterol may protect against hyperhomocysteinaemia because HDL cholesterol is associated with the enzyme paroxonase, which reduces oxidization of homocysteine to the harmful metabolite, homocysteine thiolactonase.MethodsData from a multicentre European case-control study (750 cases and 800 controls) were used for analysis. The risks of vascular disease associated with homocysteine, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, apoprotein A1 and apoprotien B were established. The effect of elevated homocysteine on the ca...