Interesting story which seems to further confirm the advantages of a high
HDL count in your blood.

Marilyn

...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/11/04/cholesterol.breakthrough.ap/index.html

New treatment works like 'liquid Drano for arteries'

Experiment injected 'good' cholesterol into heart patients

Tuesday, November 4, 2003 Posted: 4:02 PM EST (2102 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Intravenous doses of a synthetic component of
"good" cholesterol reduced artery disease in just six weeks in a small study
with startlingly big implications for treating the nation's No. 1 killer.

"The concept is sort of liquid Drano for the coronary arteries," said Dr.
Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who led the study.

Larger and longer studies need to be done to determine if the experimental
treatment will translate into fewer deaths, but the early results are
promising, said Dr. Daniel Rader, director of preventive cardiology at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The treatment used a laboratory-produced version of an unusually effective
form of HDL, the good cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease
by removing plaque, or fatty buildups, from the bloodstream.

"This is clearly on the level of a breakthrough that will have far-reaching
implications," pointing the way toward a rapid treatment for fatty buildups,
said Dr. Bryan Brewer, chief of molecular diseases at the National Heart,
Lung and Blood Institute.

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