Elevated Triglycerides: Increased Risk of Pancreatitis and Fatty Liver

Elevated Triglycerides: Increased Risk of Fatty Liver and Pancreatitis

The purpose of this website is to present, to all who want the knowledge, a safe and dependable method through which individuals can lower their elevated blood triglyceride levels. You can achieve astonishing results - if you put your mind to it.

Hypertriglyceridemia - blood triglycerides higher than 500 mg/dL, or 5.6 mmol/L - can put you at high risk for such problems as

fatty liver - yellow discoloration of the liver due to fatty degeneration of the parenchymal cells (hepatocytes), which release substances into bile canaliculi (little canals between hepatocytes) and into blood and lymph channels; and

acute pancreatitis, an acute inflammatory process of the pancreas - an abdominal organ that secretes digestive enzymes.

Pancreatitis symptoms are similar to those of heart attack, appendicitis, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, hiatal hernia, gallstones, and hepatitis. So accurate diagnosis is important..

Acute pancreatitis is associated with severe acute upper abdominal pain and elevated serum levels of pancreatic enzymes.

Most cases are associated with biliary sludge leading to gallstones and alcohol abuse (60-80 percent of cases), but the precise pathogenetic mechanisms are not understood completely.

Other causes of acute pancreatitis include:

iatrogenic postoperative trauma - one of the major complications of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)
hypercalcemia - elevated blood calcium levels maily due to hyperparathyroidism
drugs such as thiazides, azathioprine, tetracyclines, estrogens, corticosteroids, sulphonamides, or atorvastatin (Lipitor)
blunt trauma (injury) to the abdomen, often due to motor vehicle accident (MVA)
infections, such as HIV, mumps, or cytomegalovirus
cystic fibrosis
congenital hereditary anomalies (pancreas divisum, choledochocele)
Reye's syndrome (RS) - primarily a children's disease, although it may occur at any age, causing massive accumulations of fat in the liver and other organs, including pancreas.

The diagnosis is made via clinical exam, laboratory findings, and, if needed, imaging studies such as CT scan, the mainstay for imaging acute pancreatitis and its complications, or MRI, an excellent alternative imaging modality.

Serum triglyceride concentrations above 1000 mg/dL, or 11.3 mmol/L can precipitate attacks of acute pancreatitis and may account for 1.3-3.8 percent of cases.

The clinical manifestations of hypertriglyceridemia associated with pancreatitis are similar to those seen with other causes with the exception that, for poorly understood reasons, the serum amylase may not be elevated substantially.

Clinical assessment for severe pancreatitis is as accurate as most scoring systems.

Treatment of acute pancreatitis is aimed at correcting predisposing factors and at the pancreatic inflammation itself.

General management consists of supportive care with:

intravenous hydration

pain management

antibiotics

parenteral or enteral (jejunal) feeding, and

necrosectomy (in severe cases).

Chylomicronemia Syndrome

Dietary fats (from food) are absorbed through the gut – the intestines where they are assembled (synthesized) into special “lipid packets” called chylomicrons, a microscopic, minute fat particles formed during fat digestion and assimilation that directly enter the lymphatic system.

Intestinal triglycerides, or chylomicrons, containing approximately 85 percent triglycerides, are then delivered through the bloodstream to the liver, where they are processed (the normal half-life of chylomicrons is about 10 minutes).

(The half-life of a substance refers to the time required to eliminate or metabolize half of the total quantity of the substance from the body following its digestion.)

A history of recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis is common in people with severe and uncontrolled triglyceride levels, often exceeding 5000 mg/dL, or 56.5 mmol/L.

People with recurrent episodes of abdominal pain that is less severe than acute pancreatitis, however, may experience the chylomicronemia syndrome - an inherited disorder, in which abnormal lipid (fat) metabolism causes chylomicrons (a type of lipids) to accumulate to massive levels in the blood.

This less severe, and often unrecognized, condition usually is caused by triglyceride levels greater than 1000 mg/dL, or 11.3 mmol/L. However, people with this syndrome, at the onset of symptoms usually have triglyceride elevations greater than 2000 mg/dL, or 22.6 mmol/L and provide a history of recurrent episodes of abdominal pain, sometimes with nausea, vomiting, or dyspnea – shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing.

Therefore, in this condition pancreatitis is not necessarily present and pain commonly is mid epigastric, around the stomach. But it may occur in other regions, including the chest or back.

It should be noted that the presentation of hyperchylomicronemia may be confused with conditions such as acute myocardial syndromes and biliary colic - a condition characterized by severe cramping pain in the right upper abdomen due to gallstones in the gallbladder or in the bile ducts.

Test and Re-test Triglycerides from Home

Even when your triglycerides are way up - off the chart at 800 mg/dL, or >9.0 mmol/L - you can't tell. There's no symptom. And that's what makes it so scary. Because no one feels badly with high triglycerides, a lot of people simply have no clue!

The only way you know you might have a problem that needs to be attended to is to get the blood test. As a matter of fact, triglyceride count test is the test everybody gotta have at least once a year.

But there's even more to it. You should absolutely know your triglyceride level, if you have symptoms of the metabolic syndrome X, in other words, if you

are overweight
eat too many refined or simple carbohydrates (white bread, pasta, cakes, etc.),
have a history of heart disease or high blood pressure, or
have a genetic predisposition to cardiovascular health problems.

Don't have your better lipid health prompted just by panic!

Home Collected Triglycerides Test is a simple, FDA-approved, clinical laboratory analysis that measures the amount of the following lipids in your blood:

triglycerides
total cholesterol
HDL-"good" cholesterol, and
calculated LDL-"bad" cholesterol.