This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Renal Diseases  • Dialysis  • Lipids and Lipid Disorders  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Liu and colleagues¹ reported that among patients receiving dialysis, cholesterol levels and mortality were inversely associated among patients with chronic inflammation but were positively associated in those without inflammation. The authors concluded that inverse relationships between cholesterol and mortality in previous studies of this population are due to the cholesterol-lowering effect of malnutrition and systemic inflammation, rather than to a protective effect of high cholesterol levels. However, there is considerable epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory evidence that high cholesterol levels protect against infections, while low cholesterol levels predispose to infections.²

For instance, in a 15-year follow-up study of more than 100 000 healthy individuals, cholesterol levels were inversely associated with the risk of being admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of infectious disease.³ Evidently, low cholesterol levels analyzed at baseline could not have been caused by a disease these individuals had not yet acquired. Children with Smith-Lemli-Opitz . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
ravnskov@tele2.se
Lund, Sweden

RELATED ARTICLES

Inflammation, Cholesterol Levels, and Risk of Mortality Among Patients Receiving Dialysis
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh and Stefan D. Anker
JAMA. 2004;291(15):1834.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Inflammation, Cholesterol Levels, and Risk of Mortality Among Patients Receiving Dialysis—Reply
Josef Coresh and Yongmei Liu
JAMA. 2004;291(15):1834-1835.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Association Between Cholesterol Level and Mortality in Dialysis Patients: Role of Inflammation and Malnutrition
Yongmei Liu, Josef Coresh, Joseph A. Eustace, J. Craig Longenecker, Bernard Jaar, Nancy E. Fink, Russell P. Tracy, Neil R. Powe, and Michael J. Klag
JAMA. 2004;291(4):451-459.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Reply to U Ravnskov
Katan
Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2006;84:1551-1552.
FULL TEXT  

The association of lipid levels with mortality in patients on chronic peritoneal dialysis
Habib et al.
Nephrol Dial Transplant 2006;21:2881-2892.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT