ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Dyslipidemia has been recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Studies showed that the development of atherosclerotic lesions begins in childhood and progresses throughout life. While the prevalence of dyslipidemia in adults has been reported to be 10 times higher in Lebanon, there is no available data on the prevalence of dyslipidemic children in Lebanon.

Objectives: This study was conducted to check if a protocol for universal screening for lipid disorder in Lebanese children aged between two and ten years old is needed.

Materials and Methods: A total of four hundred twenty children aged 2 to 10 years old (51.5% boys) were included in the study. These subjects were recruited from private pediatric clinics after parental consent. Fasting total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL, HDL levels were measured and non-HDL cholesterol was calculated. The values were categorized according to 2011 Expert on Integrated Guidelines for Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction in Children and Adolescents.

Results: The overall prevalence of high TC (≥200 mg/dL), high non-HDL-C (≥145 mg/dL), high LDL (≥130 mg/dL), high TG (≥100 mg/dL) and low HDL (240 mg/dL with a P value respectively of 0.006 and 0.0001. Furthermore, high TG is independently associated with a BMI ≥ 95th percentile (P=0.0001). Children with parents having TC >240 mg/dL is significantly correlated with high TC, high non-HDL-C and high LDL (P=0.0001 for all variables). Finally, according to the Pediatric dyslipidemia screening guidelines from the 2011 Expert Panel, 62.3% of dyslipidemic children had at least 1 risk factor that qualified them for screening while 37.7% of them didn’t have any risk factor.

Conclusions: We might need to reconsider the latest pediatric dyslipidemia screening guidelines by performing a universal screening program because we are missing 37.7% of our dyslipidemic Lebanese children and a healthier diet should be recommended for all age groups.

Keyswords: dyslipidemia, screening, Lebanese children.