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Hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia: an independent risk factor for intermittent claudication
Author(s) -
MÖLGAARD J.,
MALINOW M. R.,
LASSVIK C.,
HOLM A.C.,
UPSON B.,
OLSSON A. G.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.625
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1365-2796
pISSN - 0954-6820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2796.1992.tb00535.x
Subject(s) - medicine , homocysteine , risk factor , intermittent claudication , endocrinology , diabetes mellitus , hyperhomocysteinemia , cholesterol , vascular disease , gastroenterology , arterial disease
. The aim of this study was to test the question of hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia as a risk factor for intermittent claudication (IC) independent of other important risk factors for peripheral atherosclerotic disease, such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, low levels of high‐density‐lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and age. The study population was recruited from an epidemiological study in LinkÖping County, Sweden, where all middle‐aged men ( n = 15253, 45–69 years of age) were screened for IC. Seventy‐eight subjects with verified IC and 98 healthy sex‐ and age‐matched controls were randomly selected. Plasma levels of homocyst(e)ine (including the sum of free and bound forms of homocysteine and their disulphide oxidation products, homocystine, and homocysteine‐cysteine mixed disulphide) were significantly higher (16.74 ± 5.45 μmol l −1 , mean value ± SD, P = 0.0002) in IC subjects than in controls (13.80 ± 3.21 μmol l −1 ), with 23% of the claudicants above the 95th percentile for controls. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that the difference in plasma homocyst(e)ine was independent of the other above‐mentioned risk factors. Moreover, the elevation of plasma homocyst(e)ine in claudicants was mainly confined to subjects with serum folate levels of < 11.0 nmol l −1 . The results suggest that folic acid supplementation should be tried in IC subjects with hyperhomocyst(e)inaemia.