Relationship between ApoB/apoA-I ratio and carotid artery intima-media thickness in patients with coronary heart disease in the Henan Region of China

AIM:To study the characteristics of lipid profile and the relationship between ApoB/apoA-I ratio and carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in the Henan Region of China in order to provide evidence for risk factor appraisal and efficiency of medical therapy. METHODS: Serum lipid and apolipoprotein of CHD patients confirmed by coronary angiography were biochemically analyzed. B-mode carotid ultrasonography of cIMT was performed in 812 patients. The differences of lipid profile and cIMT in gender-based groups and ApoB/apoA-I ratio-based groups were analyzed statistically. The relationship between cIMT and lipid profile was studied by multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: In gender-based CHD patients, a significant difference was observed in HDL-C, ApoA-I, ApoB/apoA-I, LDL/HDL, TC/HDL and cIMT between groups (all P<0.05). In ApoB/apoA-I ratio-based CHD patients (the cut-off value for males was 0.8 and for females was 0.7), age and percentages of treatment with statins were higher in low ApoB/apoA-I ratio group than those in high ratio group (P<0.05). However, the percentage of diabetes mellitus, smoking, alcohol consumption, cIMT and other lipid profile indexes were higher in high ApoB/apoA-I ratio group than those in the low ratio group (P<0.05), Multiple regression analysis showed only significant difference in the regression coefficient of ApoA-I, ApoB and ApoB/apoA-I (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: cIMT is significantly correlated with ApoB/apoA-I ratio in CHD patients. ApoB/apoA-I ratio is a more sensitive correlation index with cIMT than LDL-c.