Bilen O, Kamal A, Virani SS. Lipoprotein abnormalities in South Asians and its association with cardiovascular disease: Current state and future directions. World J Cardiol 2016; 8(3): 247-257 [PMID: 27022456 DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i3.247]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Salim S Virani, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Health Services Research and Development (152) Michael E, DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center 2002 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030, United States. virani@bcm.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Mar 26, 2016; 8(3): 247-257 Published online Mar 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i3.247
Lipoprotein abnormalities in South Asians and its association with cardiovascular disease: Current state and future directions
Ozlem Bilen, Ayeesha Kamal, Salim S Virani
Ozlem Bilen, Salim S Virani, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Ayeesha Kamal, Section of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi 3500, Pakistan
Author contributions: Bilen O, Kamal A and Virani SS conceptualized and designed the review together; Bilen O and Virani SS conducted the review and drafted the initial manuscript; all authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Supported by The American Heart Association Beginning Grant-in-Aid, No. 14BGIA20460366; the American Diabetes Association Clinical Science and Epidemiology award, No. 1-14-CE-44; and the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Globalization Award.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Salim S Virani, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Health Services Research and Development (152) Michael E, DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center 2002 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030, United States. virani@bcm.edu
Telephone: +1-713-4404410 Fax: +1-713-7487359
Received: August 5, 2015 Peer-review started: August 6, 2015 First decision: September 21, 2015 Revised: October 16, 2015 Accepted: December 9, 2015 Article in press: December 11, 2015 Published online: March 26, 2016 Processing time: 230 Days and 12.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: South Asians have a high prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and suffer from early-onset CHD. Indeed, an important contributor is their unique lipid profile which is characterized by elevated levels of triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, elevated lipoprotein(a) levels, a higher atherogenic particle burden despite comparable low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels compared with other ethnic subgroups. HDL particles also appear to be smaller, dysfunctional, and proatherogenic. Despite the rapid expansion of the current literature with better understanding of the specific lipid abnormalities in this patient population, specific management goals and treatment thresholds do not exist for South Asians because of paucity of data. Current treatment recommendations are mostly extrapolated from Western guidelines. Lastly, large, prospective studies with outcomes data are needed to assess cardiovascular benefit associated with various lipid-lowering therapies (including combination therapy) in this patient population.