Low density lipoprotein cholesterol is inversely correlated with abdominal visceral fat area: a magnetic resonance imaging study

Lipids in Health and Disease

Research

Raymond Buckley¹  Allan Coulthard¹  Christine McHenery¹  Michel R Hoenig²  Gary Cowin³ 

[1]Department of Medical Imaging, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

[2]Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

[3]University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

关键词: Visceral Adipose Tissue;    Sitosterol;    Desmosterol;    Cholestanol;    Lipid Panel;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-511X-10-12

 received in 2010-12-11, accepted in 2011-01-19,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundVisceral Fat Area (VFA) is an independent predictor of coronary disease. While low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is used to determine risk and guide therapy, its accuracy fails in obese patients who may have low LDL-C despite high VFA.ObjectiveWe sought to describe the relationship between VFA, LDL-C and to describe shifting cholesterol metabolism with increasing VFA.Methods42 High-risk vascular patients not on lipid-lowering therapy provided a fasting lipid profile and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify VFA and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) at the L4-L5 disc. Comparisons: 1. Correlation between VFA, SFA, LDL-C and the standard lipid panel 2. Correlation between VFA, SFA and markers of cholesterol synthesis (desmosterol, lathosterol) and cholesterol absorption (cholestanol, sitosterol).ResultsVFA was inversely correlated with LDL-C (r = -0.348) indicating potential discordance between cardiovascular risk and LDL-C. However, VFA was appropriately correlated with other markers of increased risk: r = -0.361 with HDL-C, r = 0.503 with VLDL-C, r = 0.499 with TG (all p < 0.05). VFA did not correlate significantly with non-HDL-C. VFA correlated positively with cholesterol synthesis markers (desmosterol, lathosterol) and negatively with an absorption marker (cholestanol).ConclusionsLDL-C is inversely correlated with VFA and this may explain the loss of the relationship between LDL-C and cardiovascular events in the obese. While Non-HDL-C did not correlate positively with VFA, the absence of a negative correlation suggests that it may be a more appropriate lipid target in an increasingly obese world.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Hoenig et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011