 The Norwegian physician Dr Carl Müller first associated the physical signs, high cholesterol levels and autosomal dominant inheritance in 1938.In the early 1970s and 1980s, the genetic cause for FH was described by Dr Joseph L. Goldstein and Dr Michael S. Brown of Dallas, Texas.Initially, they found increased activity of HMG-CoA reductase, but studies showed that this did not explain the very abnormal cholesterol levels in people with FH.