Background

Several prospective studies reported that fibrates might increase blood total homocysteine (tHcy). In this study we aimed to establish whether the reported fibrate treatment was associated with an increased risk of mild hyperhomocysteinaemia in patients with clinical coronary heart disease, and to establish whether confounding variables may influence this effect.

Design

A retrospective, case-control analysis.

Methods

A total of 410 patients, 301 males and 109 females, mean age 59.2 were examined in a Czech sample from the EUROASPIRE II survey. In addition to examinations and measurements, defined by the protocol, we estimated serum total homocysteine (tHcy), folate, B12 vitamin and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genotypes.

Results

We found significantly higher tHcy concentrations in patients with reported treatment with fibrate (16.6 ± 0.66 μmol/l) compared with no lipid-lowering treatment (13.5 ± 0.64 μmol/l, P< 0.001) or to statin (12.4 ± 0.39 μmol/l, P< 0.001). Concentrations of tHcy ≤15mmol/l (i.e. mild hyperhomocysteinaemia) as a dependent variable were positively associated with age (OR 1.18, P< 0.0003), serum vitamin B12 (OR 0.87, P< 0.003), serum creatinine (OR 1.35, P< 0.0001 and treatment with fibrates (OR 1.30, P< 0.0001), using multiple regression. Using unifactorial or multifactorial analyses, association between fibrate and tHcy is independent from conventional confounders such as age, gender, smoking, folate or B12 concentration, serum creatinine and MTHFR genotypes, however interference of low folate or B12 and fibrate treatment resulted in concentrations of tHcy more than 20 μmol/l.

Conclusions

Fibrate treatment was associated with a significant increase in prevalence of the risk of mild hyperhomocysteinaemia in coronary patients, independently from conventional confounders.

This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://dbpia.nl.go.kr/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
You do not currently have access to this article.

Comments

0 Comments
Submit a comment
You have entered an invalid code
Thank you for submitting a comment on this article. Your comment will be reviewed and published at the journal's discretion. Please check for further notifications by email.