Aim: To understand age- and gender-related differences and secular trends in coronary artery disease (CAD) lipid profiles and the characteristic of dyslipidemia in western China. Methods: An age-matched case-control study, including 2400 patients and 1200 controls was performed. All blood lipid tests evaluated from January 2012 to January 2015 at First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University were analyzed. Details of the gender and age of the patients were available. Trends were calculated using linear regression and Mantel-Haenszel X2 analyses. Results: We determined the associations among total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA-1), apolipoprotein B (apoB), nonhigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) with CAD for different ages and gender. Except for patients who were <40 years old, the plasma levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, apoB, and apoB/apoA-1 were higher in the cases than in controls, and the average levels of these markers decreased significantly as age increased. In contrast, the levels of apoA-1 and HDL-C were significantly higher in the controls than in the patients, and the levels of these markers significantly increased as age increased. Women had higher levels of TC, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, and apoB and a higher value of the apoB/apoA-1 ratio compared to men. The decrease in the average levels of these markers with age was significantly lower in women compared to men. Logistic regression was used to compute the odds ratio of CAD for a one standard deviation change in each lipid marker. Most notably, the apoB/apoA-1 ratio could be a strong risk factor for CAD, and increasing values of the ratio showed a curved line for the graph of the relationship between the ratio and risk. Conclusions: Our results confirmed that serum lipid levels in patients with CAD varied by age and gender. The apoB/apoA-1 ratio remains a strong risk factor for CAD.
Keywords: aging; coronary heart disease; dyslipidemia; gender.