Gender differences in plasma levels of cardiovascular risk markers and severity indices in Saudi patients with angiographic evidence of coronary artery disease

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate gender difference in non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors among Saudi patients with angiographically defined coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: We recruited 144 (male=105, female=39) patients with CAD who underwent coronary angiography. Laboratory analysis of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were performed along with echocardiographic evaluation. RESULTS: Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was significantly higher in females (138.65±18.67 vs 129.59±21.03 mmHg; p=0.0363). Although no significant difference was observed in TC (4.30±1.36 vs 4.67±1.07 mmol/L), however significantly higher levels of both HDL and LDL were seen in females (0.86±0.17 vs 0.70±0.23 mmol/L; p=0.0592 and 3.50±0.67 vs 2.72±1.13; p=0.0466 respectively). There were no significant differences in TG, Lp(a) and hs-CRP, however females had comparatively higher Lp(a) (30.43±28.89 vs 24.02±23.42 mg/dl) and hs-CRP (1.14±1.46 vs 0.95±1.25 mg/L). On angiography, greater extent of stenosis was observed in left anterior descending and right coronary arteries among males, while the left circumflex artery was affected more in the female patients without statistical significance (p=0.0797; 0.3890 and 0.5032 respectively). Gensini Score in males & females was 60.46±46.17 and 74.39±39.52 respectively (p=0.3013). Significantly narrower aortic root diameter (ARD) was observed among females (27.30±6.66 vs 29.73±3.40 mm; p=0.0293). CONCLUSION: Female patients have greater risk of cardiovascular diseases due to higher SBP and LDL levels which could lead to a greater Gensini score when compared to male patients. In addition, narrow ARD among females could also be a contributing factor to CAD.