Although the inverse association between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been long established, it remains unclear whether low HDL-C remains a CVD risk factor when levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) are not elevated. This is a timely issue because recent studies have questioned whether HDL-C is truly an independent predictor of CVD.