ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the correlation between serum lipoprotein(a) concentration and existence as well as severity of coronary atherosclerosis. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 826 patients who underwent angiography through measuring blood sugar, serum lipids, lipoprotein(a) and evaluation of coronary stenosis by Gensini score. RESULTS: Gensini score=6 was considered as a cut-off point for coronary disease and 40 mg/dL was determined as lipoprotein(a) cut-off point. Its higher concentration was significantly more frequent in patients with Gensini score>6 (OR: 2.50, p=0.001), independent of gender, smoking, diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. This finding was significant in patients <55 years old. There was a significant relationship between severity of coronary stenosis and higher concentration of serum lipoprotein(a). CONCLUSION: LP(a) serum concentration is an independent risk factor for coronary atherosclerosis in the Iranian population especially at the ages below 55. Also it demonstrates a direct relationship between severity of coronary atherosclerosis (by Gensini score) and serum LP(a).
Subject(s)
Coronary Angiography , Coronary Artery Disease/diagnostic imaging , Coronary Artery Disease/epidemiology , Coronary Stenosis/epidemiology , Lipoprotein(a)/blood , Adult , Aged , Blood Glucose/analysis , Cholesterol, HDL/blood , Cholesterol, LDL/blood , Comorbidity , Coronary Artery Disease/blood , Coronary Artery Disease/pathology , Coronary Stenosis/blood , Coronary Stenosis/diagnostic imaging , Coronary Stenosis/pathology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Female , Humans , Iran/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Multivariate Analysis , Population Groups , Risk Factors , Severity of Illness Index , SmokingABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The study of the association between genotype and phenotype is of great importance for the prediction of many diseases and pathophysiological conditions. The relationship between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/ deletion (I/D) polymorphism and pathological processes such as coronary artery disease (CAD) has been investigated previously with discordant results. This study was designed to determine the association between ACE gene I/D polymorphism and CAD in an Iranian population. METHODS: A total of 1050 individuals who were referred to Tehran Heart Center for coronary angiography were recruited. Six hundred seventy-six CAD-positive patients (documented by coronary angiography and Gensini scores higher than 6) and 374 CAD-negative patients were evaluated for ACE gene I/D polymorphism via the Polymerase Chain Reaction Amplification method. The patients' age, sex, smoking status and its duration as well as familial history of CAD, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were recorded. RESULTS: Five hundred four (74.6%) of the CAD-positive patients were male, and the mean age of this group was 60 (60 ± 10). In the CAD-negative individuals, the mean age was 56 (56 ± 10) and 196 of them were male (52.4%). After the analysis of all the groups and gender subgroups, neither genotype nor allele frequency was significantly different between the CAD-positive and CAD-negative groups (p values for genotypes and allele frequencies were 0.494 and 0.397, respectively). CONCLUSION: ACE gene I/D polymorphism was not associated with an increased risk of CAD in an Iranian population.