A 22-year-old woman has a higher-than-normal HDL level, which raises her total cholesterol despite a normal LDL. Would you treat the elevated HDL? Her life insurance premium was raised because she has an abnormal lipid panel.
—Gita Dalal, MD, Edison, N.J.
The higher HDL is thought to be cardioprotective. Assuming the LDL is truly “normal,” the life insurance company has erred.
—Peter F. Cohn, MD (109-20)
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