Sex Difference in Risk Factors of Lipid Metabolism for Coronary Artery Disease.

Abstract

SummaryThis study was undertaken to investigate the importance of the sex difference in risk factors of lipid metabolism for coronary artery disease (CAD). In the blood samples of 82 male and 54 female coronary artery patients, and ?0 male and 49 female healthy individuals, we determined the serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLtriglyceride (TG), and the ratio of TC/HDL-C. The differences between the mean values of the CAD and the control groups were found to be statistically significant at the level of p < 0.01 for the abovementioned parameters, except for TG, for which the level was p <0.001 in both sexes, and for HDL-C in females, for which it was p<0.05.In the CAD group 35 (43%) men and 38 (70%) women had levels of total cholesterol more than 250 mg/dl; 43 (52%) men and 42 (78%) women had levels of LDL-C more than 150 mg/dl; 54 (66%) men and 15 (28%) women had levels of HDL-C less than 35 mg/dl. For triglyceride, we observed that the values of all coronary artery patients in both sexes were above the mean values of their own control groups. On the other hand, in the CAD group, 47 (57%) men and 16 (30%) women had levels of TC less than 250 mg/dl, and of these 30 (64%) men and 5 (31%) women had HDL-C less than 35 mg/dl. These results suggest that in male coronary artery patients, high triglyceride-low HDL-C syndrome and in female coronary artery patients, high triglyceride-high LDL-C syndrome are the most common disorders of lipid metabolism.