Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) have premature coronary heart disease (CHD). Because of adverse changes in body composition and level of activity, there is an increased prevalence of abnormalities in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Hypertension appears to occur more frequently in persons with paraplegia. Knowledge of the relative risk of CHD in individuals with SCI would be important in determining appropriate intervention strategies. As such, the conventional risk factors for CHD, as defined by the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III), were determined in a population of 224 veterans with SCI to assign risk to be able to determine target low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels for therapeutic intervention. The average age of the patients was 49 ± 15 years, with a mean duration of injury of 17 ± 13 years. Diabetes mellitus (DM), a risk equivalent for CHD, wa...
