Severe Hypertriglyceridemia and Multiorgan Disease

It is well known that severe hypertriglyceridemia with serum triglyceride levels 500 mg/dL or more is an important risk factor for acute pancreatitis. Severe hypertriglyceridemia is also a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease [1]. New targets for treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia are inhibition of apolipoprotein C-III, angiopoietin-like protein 3, angiopoietin-like protein 4, and fibroblast growth factor-21. A research letter published in JACC Advances estimated the prevalence of chronic conditions and multiorgan disease among adults in the United States of America with severe hypertriglyceridemia [2]. They pooled data from Nutrition Examination Survey of 1999-2000 and 2017-2020 cycles with severe hypertriglyceridemia.

The chronic conditions included central obesity, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. As per the data, 2.3 million US adults had severe hypertriglyceridemia. Among those with severe hypertriglyceridemia, 70.3% had central obesity, 32.7% had diabetes, 21.6% had chronic kidney disease, 67% had metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and 10.6% had atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Prevalence ratio of chronic conditions was almost three times compared to those with serum triglyceride level below 200 mg/dL.

References

1. Malick WA, Do R, Rosenson RS. Severe hypertriglyceridemia: Existing and emerging therapies. Pharmacol Ther. 2023 Nov;251:108544. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2023.108544. Epub 2023 Oct 15. PMID: 37848164.
2. Chen Gurevitz, Ligong Chen, Paul Muntner, and Robert S. Rosenson. Hypertriglyceridemia and Multiorgan Disease Among U.S. Adults. JACC Adv. 2024 May, 3 (5) 100932.