THE CLINICAL STUDY OF HYPERCHOLESTERINEMIA

That lipoidal substances play an important rôle in the animal body is now generally recognized. They occur in practically all the bodytissues and the amounts are increased in sclerotic blood-vessels,¹ in the white plaques of retinitis,² in xanthomata, in old infarcts, in caseous tuberculous material and in the cholesteatomatous tumors of the ear and cranial cavity. The activity of certain anesthetics varies with their lipoidal solubility and hemolytic processes may be accelerated or retarded by the presence of lipoids. Quite recently a number of relatively simple methods have been described for determining the amounts of lipoids, and especially of cholesterin, in small quantities of blood or blood-serum. As a result, data concerning the quantity of cholesterin in normal and pathological bloods are now rapidly accumulating. It is the purpose of the present paper to review these recent studies of cholesterinemia and to present a series of personal