Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a condition with very high concentrations of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and high risk of ischemic heart disease including myocardial infarction. However, there is limited and contradictory information on whether FH and high LDL cholesterol per se confer a high risk of ischemic stroke. A study was conducted to test the hypotheses that individuals in the general population with FH and/or high LDL cholesterol have a higher risk of ischemic stroke.
But the study reveals that FH and high LDL cholesterol did not confer an increased risk of ischemic stroke. A positive association with ischemic stroke observed for some clinical FH criteria and high LDL cholesterol appears to be due to previous ischemic heart disease, rather than by high LDL cholesterol per se. The associations of FH and high LDL cholesterol with ischemic stroke risk were…
