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Abstract Disclosure: F. Khan: None. M. Eltayeb: None. J. Ryan: None. M. Murphy: None. Background: Very severe hypertriglyceridemia (22.4 mmol/L) is associated with high risk of acute pancreatitis and atherosclerotic cardiac events. Conventional treatments tend not to yield immediate results. There is a lack of clinical guidelines for acute very severe HTG; and potential therapeutic options such as insulin, heparin, plasmapheresis, and octreotide have been tested and shown to be effective. We present a series of four cases where intravenous insulin was useful as an emergency treatment for severe HTG. Clinical Cases: Case 1: 48-year-old male was admitted with very severe hypertriglyceridemia with triglycerides levels of 45.3mmol/L (reference range: 0-1.7 mmol/L), new diagnosis Diabetes Mellitus with ketosis and was started on intravenous insulin. After three days of intravenous insulin, triglyceride levels reduced by 47.93%. Case 2: 28-year-old male, admitted with acute pancreatitis secondary to very severe hypertriglyceridemia (66.9mmol/L), a new diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus with ketosis, was commenced on intravenous insulin. There was a reduction in triglycerides by 77.5% in 3 days and 96.6% in 9 days with intravenous insulin treatment. Case 3: 29-year-old female, admitted with new diagnosis Diabetes Mellitus with ketosis and very severe hypertriglyceridemia (50.67mmol/L) was treated with intravenous insulin. Total triglyceride reduction was 65.8% in 48 hours. Case 4: 27-year-old female, admitted Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), new diagnosis Diabetes Mellitus, very severe hypertriglyceridemia (24.3mmol/L) was treated with intravenous insulin. 65.8% reduction in triglycerides was seen in after 72 hours. Conclusion: These cases show the efficacy of insulin infusion with encouraging results, especially when plasmapheresis is not readily available however larger studies including a randomized controlled trials is needed to confirm the efficacy and safety for the use of intravenous insulin to establish a universal and effective treatment for this severe life-threatening metabolic disorder. Reference: Simha V. Management of hypertriglyceridemia BMJ 2020; 371 :m3109 doi:10.1136/bmj.m3109 Presentation: 6/3/2024
Khan et al. (Tue,) studied this question.