Endocrine Abstracts

Hypertriglyceridaemia is a commonly encountered scenario in clinical practice. Rare monogenic disorders can cause severe hypertriglyceridaemia, but more commonly, elevated triglycerides are secondary to a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Common secondary causes include obesity, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, alcohol misuse, nephrotic syndrome and various medications. An important first step to management is addressing these factors, before considering commencing medication. The aim of management of hypertriglyceridaemia is to reduce the risk of pancreatitis in those with severely raised triglycerides, and to also reduce the modest risk of cardiovascular disease associated with moderately raised triglycerides. Severely raised triglycerides may also interfere with various laboratory measurements, such as sodium, causing either false or unreportable results in some cases. This talk will review the current treatment strategies for hypertriglyceridaemia. As well as risk factor modification, it will review drug therapies, including statins, fibrates, and omega-3 fatty acids. Severe hypertriglyceridaemia associated with pancreatitis will respond to standard protocols in most cases, though therapies such as plasmapheresis may very occasionally be used. There are also newer specialised medications that are reserved for monogenic disorders.