CORRELATION BETWEEN HOMOCYSTEINE AND LIPID LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE

Objective: To determine the correlation between homocysteine and lipid profile in patients with ischemic heart disease. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients of ischemic heart disease aged 25-60 years admitted in coronary care unit of Punjab Institute of Cardiology Lahore after ethical committee approval from 1st November 2014 to 31st October 2014. Fasting venous blood samples were obtained from the participants to measure the plasma homocysteine levels and lipid profile. The patients were also assessed for traditional risk factors such as age, sex, family history of CVD, hypertension, smoking, dyslipidemia and physical activity. The data was analyzed through SPSS version 22. Coefficient of correlation (r) was calculated to establish correlation between the variables. Results: Total 105 patients were included. The mean age of the study population was 44.7 +/- 8.59 years. Among 105 participants 79 (75.2%) were males. The value of coefficient correlation (r) for total cholesterol and Homocysteine was 0.189 (p=0.006), for triglycerides and homocysteine was 0.12 (p=0.082), and for LDL-C and homocysteine was 0.295 (p=0.000) showing weak positive correlation among the variables. On the other hand, the value of coefficient correlation for homocysteine and HDL-C represent a moderate negative correlation between these variables. Conclusion: The study revealed that homocysteine has significant but weak correlation with Total C, Triglycerides, and LDL-C showing that in patients with high homocysteine level the level of these biomarkers is also found to be raised and vice versa. On the other hand, homocysteine has moderately week correlation with HDL-C i.e., in patients with high level of homocysteine, the level HDL-C was found to be decreased.