Open AccessCoronary heart disease risk factors in hansen's disease sufferers
Author(s) -
Diamantopoulos Emmanuel J.,
Anthopoulos Lambros P.,
Moulopoulos Spyridon D.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
clinical cardiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.263
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1932-8737
pISSN - 0160-9289
DOI - 10.1002/clc.4960150609
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetes mellitus , blood pressure , population , coronary heart disease , uric acid , erythrocyte sedimentation rate , disease , risk factor , cardiology , gastroenterology , endocrinology , environmental health
In the frame of an epidemiologic study of Hansen's disease (HD) sufferers, several risk factors have been investigated which might explain the high prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) among HD patients. The data analyzed in the present study are derived from 293 HD patients (157 men and 136 women). The patients, after having completed a WHO adopted questionnaire, were given a complete physical examination, a resting and an exercise electrocardiogram, and biochemical as well as hematological examinations. Coronary HD patients, when compared to noncoronary HD patients, showed statistically significant differences in the following parameters: (1) mean age, (2) mean concentration of the electrophoretic fraction of α‐lipoproteins, (3) deviation from mean weight, (4) prevalence of hypertension, and (5) prevalence of the borderline lepromatous form of HD. However, the differences found when comparing other parameters, such as blood pressure, smoking, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, triglycerides, pre‐β and β‐lipoproteins, uric acid, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ABO blood groups, etc., did not reach the level of significance. These findings suggest that HD sufferers are a special population subgroup with reference to CHD risk factors, differing in many ways from the general population.