It has been recently reported that coronary artery disease (CAD) is more correlated with postprandial triglyceride (TG) levels than fasting TG levels. We performed this study to compare the patients with CAD to age- and sex-matched controls in regard to postprandial TG levels and to know the effects of fenofibrate on postprandial TG levels.

Serum TG, total cholesterol (C), HDL-C and LDL-C were measured before, and 2, 4, 6, 8, and 24 hours after a high-fat meal in 22 patients (mean: 60 yr) with CAD and 12 normal subjects (mean: 54 yr). The same parameters were also serially measured after the high-fat meal plus fibrate in 10 patients with CAD (mean: 59 yr).

The patients group without fibrate showed that more prolonged and exaggerated hypertriglyceridemia following the meal than normal subjects, especially 4 to 8 hours after the meal and that lower HDL-C throughout the test duration. These changes were also persisted when hyperlipidemic patients were excluded out of the patients group. The patients with fibrate did not show such a significant elevation of TG levels 4 to 8hours after the meal compared when normal subjects. The time to reach the peak TG levels after the meal was 4, 6, and 4 hours after the meal in normal subjects, patients with CAD, and fibrate group, respectively.

Coronary artery disease is clearly related with postprandial hypertriglyceridemia than fasting TG levels and postprandial hypertriglyceridemia can be somewhat prevented by fibrate.