[Correlation between hypercholesterolemia and vitamin C deficient diet]

The deficiency of ascorbic acid in the diet affects the activity of lecithin cholesterol acyl-transferase enzyme and transformation of cholesterol to its main catabolic product the biliary acids. Fifteen patients with normal blood levels of cholesterol and fifteen patients with hypercholesterolemia were submitted to a comparative study as to the dietary ingestion of ascorbic acid. Besides this the presence of the varicosity of the sublingual vein--indicating hypovitaminosis C--was investigated in both groups of patients. The "t" Student test and Control-Case test of the results showed that regarding the cholesterol level there was a significant difference between the patients with hypercholesterolemia (422 +/- 116.2018 mg/100 ml) and those with normal cholesterolemia (160.73 +/- 29.5356 mg/100 ml). The ingestion of ascorbic acid in he diet of the normal cholesterolemia group was found to be significantly higher than that of patients with hypercholesterolemia. The ingestion of cholesterol was high in the group of patients with hypercholesterolemia but in comparison with other groups there was no significant difference. The varicosity of the sublingual vein was observed with significantly higher frequency (p < 0.0001) in the group of patients with hypercholesterolemia and lower ingestion of ascorbic acid.