HDL cholesterol in hepatobiliary diseases

The seric levels of cholesterol-HDL have been determined by an enzymatic method after precipitation with heparine/chlorure of manganese in 96 patients with different hepatobiliary diseases and in 111 healthy controls. The HDL cholesterol and the degree HDL/total cholesterol have been found drastically diminished in patients with cholestasis. The patients affected by hepatic cirrhosis have also shown very diminished levels of cholesterol-HDL, this fact being more acute among those which presented phenomena of associated cholestasis. No correlation has been found among the levels of HDL cholesterol and other biologic proofs of hepatic function nor with the time of evolution of icterus. The cholesterol-HDL has been found slightly more diminished among the alcoholic cirrhotic than among the non alcoholic ones, the analysis of the patients suggests that this fact is more concerned with the associated cholestasis phenomena than due to the alcohol abuse per se.