Clinical significance of serum lipids in idiopathic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis
It is well known that pulmonary alveolar proteinosis(PAP) is characterised by accumulation of surfactant lipids and proteins within airspaces. However, few previous data describe the serum lipid levels associated with PAP. Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed 25 patients with idiopathic PAP(iPAP). The serum lipid levels of patients with idiopathic PAP were compared with those of the healthy volunteers. In patients and healthy subjects, the LDL-C/HDL-C ratios were 2.94+/-1.21 and 1.60+/-0.70, respectively (p <0.001), HDL-C were 1.11+/-0.27 and 1.71+/-0.71 respectively (p <0.001). The values of LDL-C correlated significantly with those of PaO2 and PA-aO2 (r=-0.685, p=0.003, and r=0.688, p=0.003, respectively).