Spontaneous Rupture of Achilles Tendon in Six Familial Hypercholesterolemic Patients

Abstract

Failial Hypercholesterolemia (FHC) is charactarized clinically by hypercholesterolemia greater than 250mg/dl with tendon xanthomas (especially Achilles tendon xanthoma determined by radiographic method).
In this paper we reported six FHC patients with spontaneously ruptured Achilles tendon. The results were as follows: 1) their ages were between 41 and 68yrs (53±4, Means±SEM). 2) the radiographic Achilles tendon thickness were between 9 and 14mm (11.5±1) on the non-ruptured side and between 12 and 17mm (14.5±0.7) on the ruptured side. 3) the serum cholesterol levels were between 251 and 402mg/dl (313±27). They had no systemic or local diseases expect FHC. The rediographic Achilles tendon thickness of 228 FHC patients showed a positive correlation with the ages (r:0.231, p<0.001) and the serum cholesterol leverls (r:0.195, p<0.001).
These observations suggest that the long-term hypercholesterolemic state would lead to the degenerative changes and the spontaneous rupture of Achilles tendon in FHC.