J Korean Med Sci.  2012 May;27(5):500-505. 10.3346/jkms.2012.27.5.500.

Use of Serum Homocysteine to Predict Cardiovascular Disease in Korean Men with or without Metabolic Syndrome

• Kang JY
• Park IK
• Lee JY
• Sung SH
• Chang YK
• Park YK
• Choi TI

• KMID: 1372791
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2012.27.5.500

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine whether serum homocysteine (Hcy) levels correlated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) depending on the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Korean men. We conducted a case-control study, including 138 CVD and 290 non-CVD age-matched control subjects. The subjects were divided into four subgroups: 34 CVD/MetS, 104 CVD, 77 MetS, and 213 normal subgroups. The mean Hcy was significantly higher, whereas HDL and intake of vitamin B1 and B2 were lower in the CVD group (P < 0.05) than non-CVD group. When compared to the control group, subjects with CVD/MetS, CVD and MetS exhibited high Hcy levels, with the highest observed in the CVD/MetS subgroup (P < 0.001). Multivariate stepwise linear regression between CVD and markers of CVD showed Hcy significantly correlated with CVD (P < 0.05). To predict CVD based on Hcy, Hcy threshold of 11.72 microM in non-MetS subjects had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.664 (95% CI 0.598-0.731). In MetS subjects, the AUC was 0.618 and Hcy threshold was 13.32 microM (95% CI 0.509-0.726). The results of our study show that the presence of MetS needs to be considered when using Hcy levels for predicting CVD.

Keyword

Homocysteine; Cardiovascular Diseases; Metabolic Syndrome; Cut-off Points

MeSH Terms

Adult
Area Under Curve
Cardiovascular Diseases/*blood/complications/epidemiology
Case-Control Studies
Cholesterol, HDL/blood
Dietary Supplements
Homocysteine/blood
Humans
Linear Models
Male
Metabolic Syndrome X/*complications
Middle Aged
Predictive Value of Tests
Republic of Korea/epidemiology

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Receiver-operating-characteristic curves of Hcy for CVD according to the (A) non-MetS subjects, (B) MetS subjects.

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