Attention to plant sterols: a novel risk factor for residual risk assessment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Plant sterols are a class of compounds naturally produced by plants and structurally similar to cholesterol. For human, plant sterols can only be obtained from food and cannot be utilized directly. With the development of gas chromatography technology and in-depth research on the molecular mechanisms of rare diseases, plant sterols have been found to play important roles in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)and become a residual risk factor after statin therapy. As a novel metabolic marker, plant sterols can reflect steady state the imbalance of the cholesterol and the increase of the cholesterol absorption within the human body, and is expected to become a new risk factor for ASCVD residual risk assessment.