ABSTRACT
We studied 344 children (174 girls and 170 boys) between the ages of 6 and 15 years (average age 11 years 9 months) chosen on the basis of a positive family anamnesis for dismetabolic and/or precocious cardiovascular pathologies, and also on the basis of objective data obtained at medical examinations, such as obesity and hypertension. These subjects underwent blood tests for glycaemia, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Children with total cholesterol levels above 170 mg/dl were considered to be hypercholesterolemic. 127 young people (65 girls and 62 boys) turned out to have excessively high cholesterol levels with an average level of 195.71 +/- 23.11 mg/dl and average LDL level of 127.05 +/- 25.08 mg/dl. 217 subjects (109 girls and 108 boys) turned out to be within the norm with total cholesterol level of 137.76 +/- 23.04 mg/dl and LDL cholesterol 75.59 +/- 22.89 mg/dl. We found a greater difference between the average values of LDL cholesterol and those of total cholesterol (40.5% compared to 29.61%), which shows that even at pediatric ages the LDL cholesterol concentration is the factor which best indicates the risk level for atherosclerotic development.
