Serum lipoproteins in children with anaemia

Plasma and erythrocyte lipids were estimated in 9 children with different types of anaemia and in 9 healthy control children. The anaemic children had rather high plasma triglcerides, but low total cholesterol and phospholipids. The levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were particularly low, with a mean of only 70% of the controls. A positive correlation was found for haematocrit with HDL cholesterol, but not with low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Plasma albumin was at the same level in both groups of children, however, suggesting that the diluting effect of increase in plasma volume could only partly explain the lowering of HDL cholesterol. A striking, inverse correlation between HDL cholesterol and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) triglycerides was present in the anaemic children. Anaemia in children adds to previously recognized pathophysiological condditions which induce inversely interrelated changes in HDL and VLDL.