Abstract
In order to evaluate the risk factors associated with coronary heart disease in patients with eating disorders, serum total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, phospholipid (PL) and apolipoproteins were measured in 37 restricting anorectic (AN), 17 anorectic-bulimic (AB) and 34 nonanorectic-bulimic (BN) patients and 21 control (C) subjects. Serum TC, PL, apolipoprotein (apo) B, apo C-II, apo C-III and apo E levels in AN, AB and BN were all significantly higher than those in C. TC was negatively correlated with % body weight in AN and AB, negatively correlated with T3 levels in AN, and positively correlated with the grade of bulimia in BN. These results suggest the presence of hypercholesterolemia in patients with bulimia nervosa as well as those with anorexia nervosa, and that the pathogenesis of hypercholesterolemia differs between these two subgroups of eating disorders.
