Plasma lipid alterations in patients with chronic renal disease

Hyperlipidemia is common in patients with renal disease. This fact may be of great clinical relevance in view of the overwhelming evidence associating disturbed lipid metabolism and atherogenesis. Thus, hyperlipidemia may predispose to vascular disease in patients with chronic renal disorders and premature atherosclerosis could be an important risk in renal disease and a major factor limiting survival of patients on long-term maintenance hemodialysis. The aim of the present review is to present a brief but clinically relevant description of lipoprotein physiology and then to survey the now considerable literature concerned with lipoprotein and thus lipid abnormalities in patients with renal disease. A particular emphasis is placed on the role of the plasma lipoproteins in forming an integrated and controlled pathway for lipid metabolism, and how altered regulatory control within the pathway may be associated with pathogenic mechanisms. Finally, the evidence for accelerated development of vascular disease associated with these lipid abnormalities is briefly considered.