The prognostic significance of hypocholesterolemia in hospitalized patients.
Hypocholesterolemia (less than 120 mg/dl) was found in 200 out of 3,700 patients admitted consecutively to a University Department of Internal Medicine. In 91, hypocholesterolemia as defined above could be confirmed in a second serum sample on the following day. Mortality during hospitalization in this group was 32%. When diagnoses were grouped into 5 categories, prognosis was particularly poor in heart (36%) and liver disease (31%) and in malignancies (33%), while patients with malabsorption syndromes had a considerably better prognosis (10% mortality). Hypocholesterolemia was associated with a low cholesterol/phospholipid ratio and may be among the first signs of further deterioration of disease.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007009:Hypolipoproteinemias / Q000097:blood*; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000097:blood; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000097:blood; D008286:Malabsorption Syndromes / Q000097:blood; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood; D011379:Prognosis
D008074:Lipoproteins; D002784:Cholesterol