Serum lipid profile as a risk factor of coronary artery disease and its relation with anemia in a population of Odisha

INTRODUCTION: While most CAD risks are attributable to smoking, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and sedentary lifestyle habits, little study has been done to throw some light towards finding any relation between CAD and anaemia which is quite widespread disease among the rural population of India irrespective of the age. Among the available studies, the results were also contradictory, especially with regard to the triglyceride (TG) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) levels. We hypothesize that the serum lipid profile consisting of TC, TG, LDL and VLDL shall be lower in the anemic group. Hence the objectives of our study are: to evaluate the serum TC, TG, LDL, VLDL and HDL levels in anemic patients and to find out any relation of lipid profile between anemic and non-anemic group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It is a hospital based cross sectional observational study being done in Department of Biochemistry, AIIMS Bhubaneswar. 33 numbers of outdoor patients of 40 years and above attending Medicine OPD are recruited till now. Smokers, diabetics, patients taking lipid lowering drugs, chronic disease conditions, pregnant and lactating lady are excluded from the study. Patients having hemoglobin < 13 g % in men and < 12 g % in women are taken in the anemia group and equal number of age sex matched controls taken. Institutional Ethical Clearance was obtained and Blood samples collected from the patients for lipid profile estimation in the laboratory of Department of Biochemistry. The assays were done for serum TC, TG, LDL and HDL using Beckman Coulter Automated analyzer and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: In this study, till now 33 samples and equal no. of controls are analyzed with mean age 52.5 [+ or -] 6.3 years of the subjects. Mean serum total cholesterol concentration obtained in the anemic group and control are 165.3 [+ or -] 8.5 and 184.3 [+ or -] 7.9 mg/dL respectively with p < 0.05. The serum TG, LDL and HDL concentrations also showing significant differences in both the groups. CONCLUSION: Although our study is at very initial stage but it is clearly evident that the comparison of lipid values among controls and patients with different grades of anemia showed statistical significance for lipoproteins and total cholesterol. Several factors such as plasma dilution, increased erythropoiesis leading to increased cholesterol demand, activation of macrophage system with the release of cytokines as well as increased uptake of cholesterol by the reticuloendoth