A rare case of severe hypertriglyceridemia in a patient with no acute pancreatitis after previous bouts of pancreatitis secondary to hypertriglyceridemia

Abstract

A 46-year-old female presents to the emergency department with very severe hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) with a total triglyceride (TG) count over 10,000 mg/dL with no evidence of acute pancreatitis. There have been very few cases of very severe hypertriglyceridemia without evidence of acute pancreatitis, based on literature review. It is also rare for triglyceride (TG) counts to exceed 2000 without an underlying genetic cause. Monogenic causes of HTG are uncommon and the true cause of HTG is usually multifactorial. Treatment of severe HTG such as this case often involves long-term lifestyle and dietary modifications.