Hyperlipidaemia in uraemic patients under chronic haemodialysis. Correlation with serum lipoprotein lipase and insulin levels.

Hyperlipidaemia is implicated in vascular complications of uraemic patients on haemodialysis. In this work serum lipids, serum lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and insulin levels were measured in 45 chronic uraemic patients on haemodialysis and 44 healthy volunteers. A significant rise in total lipids (TL), cholesterol and triglycerides (TG) was detected in the haemodialysis patients, but no changes were found in either serum phospholipids or high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-chol.). The rise in TL, TG and cholesterol was positively correlated with the duration of dialysis but not with age or sex. On the other hand, a significant rise was also observed in serum LPL and insulin levels but with no correlation between any of them and the lipid levels. From this study it may be apparent that other factors rather than LPL abnormalities may be implicated in hyperlipidaemia in uraemic patients under haemodialysis.