The following are the most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by hypercholesterolemia (pure LDL elevation):
Eyes and eye appendages (H00-H59).
- Visual disturbances
Skin and subcutaneous (L00-L99)
- Chronic wound (poorly healing wounds).
Cardiovascular system (I00-I99)
- Aneurysm (vascular dilatation).
- Apoplexy (stroke)
- Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
- Heart valve disease
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Coronary artery disease (CAD, narrowing or occlusion of coronary arteries/heart-supplying vessels), early
- Myocardial infarction (heart attack) (in homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), fatal myocardial infarctions are possible in early childhood).
- Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (pAVK) – progressive narrowing or occlusion of the arteries supplying the arms / (more often) legs, mostly due to atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis, arteriosclerosis).
Liver, gallbladder and bile ducts – pancreas (pancreas) (K70-K77; K80-K87).
- Liver fibrosis – connective tissue remodeling of the liver with functional impairment.
- Portal hypertension (portal hypertension; portal vein hypertension) – e.g., due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Mouth, esophagus (esophagus), stomach, and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).
- Mesenteric infarction – occlusion of the vessels supplying the intestine with necrosis (death) of the affected section.
Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99).
- Alzheimer’s disease – apolipoprotein E is thought to be associated with the development of this currently noncurable disorder
- PRIND (prolonged ischaemic neurological deficit).
- Transient ischemic attack (TIA) – sudden circulatory disturbance of the brain, which leads to neurological disorders that regress within 24 hours.
Genitourinary system (kidneys, urinary tract – sex organs) (N00-N99).
- Renal insufficiency (renal weakness to renal failure).
Prognostic factors
- Dependent on the level of baseline LDL during LDL-lowering lipid therapy:
- > 100 mg/dl → reduction in mortality (death rate).
- Increase in LDL levels by 40 mg/dl → 9% lower risk of all-cause mortality.
- ≥ 160 mg/dl → 28% relative reduction in mortality risk.
- More intensive LDL lowering verus less intensive LDL reduction → moderate decrease in all-cause mortality (7.08% vs. 7.70%, relative risk reduction: 8%) as well as lower cardiovascular mortality (3.48% vs. 4.07%, relative risk reduction: 16%)
- > 100 mg/dl → reduction in mortality (death rate).
