The Authors investigated the lipidometabolic effects of
calcium heparin in order to assess if the antiatherogenic usefulness of the
drug, recently demonstrated in the treatment of
thrombosis and myocardial reinfarction, may be linked to its hypolipemiant property in addition to the antithrombotic one. The series consists of 25 normal-weight subjects (9 m, 16 f, mean age 68 +/- 5, RBW 107 +/- 3) of whom 11 were normolipemics (group A) and 14 hyperlipemics (group B) suffering from
hyperlipoproteinemia of type IIA (4 cases), IIB (6 cases) and IV (4 cases). After an overnight fasting each subject was given
calcium heparin (12,500 Units in a single dose subcutaneously); before and after 20', 1 hr, 2 hr and 6 hr venous blood samples were taken; for each sample plasma levels of
triglyceride, total
LDL-, total HDL-, HDL-3-, HDL-2-cholesterol,
apoprotein CII, and
apoprotein CIII were determined. In group A and B,
triglycerides showed a significant reduction and total
cholesterol a slight one, the "minima" being at the 1st hour after the
heparinoid stimulus; the
triglyceride reduction was more evident (8%) in group A than in group B (17%). In group A, total HDL-, HDL-2- and HDL-3-cholesterol decreased significantly (P less than 0.01) with a "nadir" at the 2nd hr in group B; total
HDL-cholesterol did not change, whereas HDL-3-cholesterol decreased (P less than 0.05) and
HDL-2 cholesterol increased (P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)