The UK Paediatric Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Register: preliminary data

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2008 guidelines on the treatment and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) recommend that children with FH should be considered for statin treatment by the age of 10 years. The Paediatric FH Register was established in 2012 to collect baseline and long-term follow-up data on all children with FH in the UK.

Paediatricians and adult lipidologists have been invited to enter baseline data on any child with a clinical diagnosis of FH using an electronic capture record.

Baseline data is on 232 children (50% boys, 80% Caucasian), with an untreated mean (SD) total cholesterol of 7.61 (1.48) mmol/L and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) of 5.67 (1.46) mmol/L. Overall 111/232 (47.8%) of the children were on statins. Children over the age of 10 years at the most recent follow-up were twice as likely to be on statin treatment than those under 10 years (57.6% (102/177) vs 23.1% (9/39), p=0.00009). In both age groups, those subsequently on statin treatment had significantly higher diagnostic total and LDL-C (overall 6.01 (1.46) mmol/L vs 5.31 (1.37) mmol/L, p=0.00007), and had stronger evidence of a family history of early coronary heart disease (CHD) in parent or first-degree relative (overall 28.4% vs 19.0%, p=0.09). In statin-treated children LDL-C level was reduced by 35% (2.07 (1.38) mmol/L) compared with a reduction of 5.5% (0.29 (0.87) mmol/L), p=0.0001 in those not treated. None of those on statin had measured plasma levels of creatine kinase, alanine aminotransferase and AST indicative of statin toxicity (ie, >2.5 times the upper limit of the normal range).

The data indicates that treatment decisions in children with FH are appropriately based on a stronger family history of CHD and higher LDL-C.