Triglyceride-rich lipoprotein remnant particles and risk of atherosclerosis.

More than 3 decades of clinical research have suggested a relationship between triglycerides and coronary heart disease.1 However, because of the complexity of what is actually measured by a plasma triglyceride determination, establishing a firm relationship between triglycerides and coronary heart disease has been difficult. Triglycerides are carried in virtually all plasma lipoproteins and present a different risk profile in both the fasting and postprandial states, making triglyceride-rich lipoproteins highly heterogenous. This heterogeneity is a major contributing factor to the complexity of the relationship between triglycerides and coronary heart disease.