Department of Medicine, George Washington University,Washington, USA
* Correspondence to: Tsung O. Cheng, Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, George Washington University, 2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20037, USA. Tel: +1 202 741 2426; Fax: +202 741 2324
E-mail address: tcheng{at}mfa.gwu.edu
Received 23 October 2003; accepted 5 November 2003
In the editorial published in the October 2003 issue, Lewington1stated that... lower threshold such as 4mmol/l for total cholesterol... is not uncommon in China... This used to be the case several decades ago but unfortunately is no longer true.2
In China the normal plasma cholesterol values were 155mg/dl or 4mmol/l in 1958,3191mg/dl or 4.9mmol/l in 1981,3200mg/dl or 5.2mmol/l in 1997,4and 232mg/dl or 6.0mmol/l in 2003.5This alarming trend of rising normal cholesterol values in China is a result of a change in lifestyle and dietary habits.6Is China paying too high a price formodernization?6
References
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