Arya Atherosclerosis
Volume:4 Issue: 3, Autumn 2008

Ecological studies have found a negative correlation between the risk of developing heart disease and fish consumption because of their long chain omega-3 fatty acids. This study was undertaken to determine the amounts of the common fatty acids exist in several commercial canned fish marketing in Iran, with particular attention to long chain omega-3 fatty acids. The most consumed available brands of canned fish were randomly selected seven times from products available in supermarkets. Total lipids were extracted by using the Folch method and prepared for fatty acid analysis. Individual fatty acids were quantified by gas chromatography (GC) with 60meter capillary column and flame ionization detector. The most common saturated fatty acids (SFA) in Iranian canned fish was palmitic acid(C16:0) followed by stearic acid(C18:0).The amount of all trans fatty acids(TFAs) except elaidic acid(C18:1 9t) was 0%.The highest amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids(PUFAs) related to long chain omega-3 fatty acids include eicosapentaenoic acid(EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid(DHA).The most abundant monounsaturated fatty acids(MUFAs) was oleic acid(C18:1 9c). This study showed higher contents of EPA and DHA in Iranian commercially available canned fish compared to the canned fish in other countries.

The oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein (LDL) is believed to play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis. Thus، measurement of plasma oxidized LDL (OX-LDL) is essential for atherosclerotic diseases، for investigating its relevance to athero-sclerotic diseases. We aimed to assess the oxidized LDL in patients with coronary artery disease and correlation between serum oxidized low density lipoprotein and in vitro susceptibility of LDL to oxidation. Subjects of the study were selected from patients who undergone angiography (42 patients with coronary artery disease and 40 controls without any evidence of CAD). The sus-ceptibility of LDL to in vitro oxidation was assessed with the addition of a Cuso4 solution. The lag time، propagation rate and maximal diene calculated from the oxidation curve. Biochemical factors (FBS، total cholesterol، TG، LDL، and HDL) were measured in these subjects. SPSS ver-sion 15. 5 was used to analyze the data، P- value under 0. 05 was considered to be significant. The results indicated that the serum OX-LDL concentration was significantly ele-vated in CAD patients and the lag time was significantly shorter than controls (P < 0. 05). These results clearly confirm that LDL from persons with CAD is more susceptible to oxidative modifi-cation in vitro than LDL from healthy subjects. The other measured biochemical factors were not significantly different between CAD patients and controls (P > 0. 05). Correlation between serum OX-LDL and susceptibility of LDL to in vitro oxidation did not show significant associa-tion (P > 0. 05). our findings suggest that a high OX-LDL concentration and a short LDL oxi-dation lag time might be independent risk factors for CAD.

The aim of this study was to assess resolution of ST segment elevation after streptokinase therapy in opium addict patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).METHOD AND MATERIALS: The studied population consisted of AMI patients who have criteria for thrombolytic therapy. Three groups of ST segment resolution were defined: complete resolu-tion (≥ 70%), partial resolution (70% to 30%) and no resolution (< 30%). 240 patients were studied (126 opium addicts and 114 non-addicts). Overall, 52.5% of addicts and 38.7% of non-addicts had complete ST segment resolution (P = 0.06).The odds of ST elevation resolution in addicts was 1.8 (95%, CI: 1.09-2.95) compared to non-addicts. When it was adjusted for other variables, it reduced to 1.03 (95%, CI: 0.54-1.97). There was not any significant relationship between opium addiction and re-sponse to thrombolytic therapy among patients with acute MI.

obesity is one of the most important risk factors in chronic diseases, like coro-nary heart disease and diabetes mellitus. It is believed that elevated levels of C- reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen are associated with increased cardiovascular risk.We examined the hypothesis that weight loss would reduce plasma CRP and fibrinogen levels in obese women. Body weight, fasting glucose, insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, high- density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low- density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and acute phase proteins were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of weight loss regimen in 29 obese women. Weight, BMI, fasting blood glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride had significant re-ductions. HDL-C had increased significantly. No significant changes were observed in LDL-C and insulin concentrations. Plasma acute phase proteins levels decreased significantly. Weight loss may represent an important intervention to reduce acute phase protein levels, which may mediate its cardioprotective effects in obese women.

Atherosclerosis of cerebral arteries is the most common etiology of ischemic stroke around the world. This pilot double-center study evaluated risk factors of atherosclerosis in stroke patients in two different racial subtypes.METHOD AND MATERIALS: This prospective clinical study was conducted on 100 consecutive stroke patients in Mackenzie hospital, Canada and 100 consecutive stroke patients in Ghaem hospital, Iran in 2007. The patients were age and sex matched. All of the Canadian patients were from white North American race and all of the Iranian patients were white Persian race. Diagno-sis of ischemic stroke was made by stroke neurologists. The frequency rates of hypertension, diabetes, hypercholestrolemia and smoking were detected in the two studied groups. Chi-Square and Fisher tests served for statistical analysis and P < 0.05 was declared as significant. 92 males and 108 females with ischemic stroke were investigated. Hypertension was the most common risk factor of atherosclerosis in all patients followed by hypercholestrolemia, diabetes and smoking. The influence of race on the frequency rate of atherosclerosis risk factors was not significant, P > 0.05. Hypertension was significantly more frequent in Iranian than Ca-nadian males: df = 1, P = 0.023. However, racial difference in the frequency rate of the hyper-tension was insignificant in the females: df = 1, P = 0.841. The effects of race on frequency rate of other atherosclerosis risk factors was insignificant in each gender separately, P > 0.05. There is no significant difference in frequency rate of atherosclerosis risk fac-tors between North American and Persian stroke patients.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Iran and throughout the world. Hyperlipidemia, as one of the main causes of CVD, has been diagnosed in nearly one third of Iranian middle aged women.Menopause manifests wide range of physiologic changes in women, most important of which hyperlipidemia.Appropriate nutritional interventions can prevent or postpone some cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women. The aim of this randomized clinical trial, was to examine the effect of soy lecithin on serum lipid parameters of hyperlipidemic postmenopausal women referring to Dr. shahid Faghihee hospital of Shiraz University of medical sciences. Sixty free living, 50-60 yr postmenopausal women with mild to moderate hyperlipidemia entered the study. Subjects were randomly assigned in one of three treatments: (yoghurt) or: (yoghurt with 16g soy lecithin granules) or: (yoghurt with 10g sunflower oil,containing equal amount of linoleic acid and energy as the administered lecithin).Strawberry syrup was added to ensure blindness, in this double blind trial. To assess the effects of confounding factors, BMI and waist circumference were measured; intake of some dietary factors (energy,macronutrients,saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids,cholesterol,calcium and fiber) were assessed using 24 hr-food recall and 3-day food record questionnaires; changes in physical activity level was assessed by seven day-physical activity recall questionnaire. Serum lipid parameters)TC, Non-HDL.C, LDL.C, HDL.C and TG) were measured twice at baseline and 4 weeks of treatment. While there were no any significant between treatment groups different,nonetheless,in the intervention group (lecithin), significant within group decrease was found in the average level of TC (252.33±24.02 vs. 255.22±24.82 mg/dL and p=0.02),LDL.C/HDL.C (3.99±0.50 vs. 4.17±0.56 mg/dL and p=0.001) and Non.HDL.C (211.94±23.94 vs. 216.00±23.73 mg/dL and p=0.005) and accompanying significant increase in serum HDL.C level (40.39±5.21 vs. 39.22±5.58 mg/dL and p=0.04).Likewise, in the control group І (sunflower oil), no significant within group change was found in serum lipid profile. Decreasing LDL.C/HDL.C level (4.18±0.40 vs. 4.24±0.43 mg/dL and p=0.03), was the only significant change in serum lipid profile of control group ІІ (yoghurt). Soy lecithin treatment had no significant hypocholesterolemic effect on serum lipid profile, in a way that we can not claim any independent effect for lecithin''s linoleic acid content.

Elevated body iron stores have been suggested to be a risk factor for cardiovas-cular disease (CVD). We examined whether elevated plasma ferritin concentrations as indicator of iron stores, affect the oxidative stress markers in a reproductive age women population. One hundred sixty, 20-45-year-old women were randomly selected. We investigated body iron stores by measuring the concentrations of plasma ferritin. Furthermore, we assessed oxidative stress markers by measuring the concentrations of plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of erythrocyte cytoprotective enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in a random sample of cardiovascular disease-free women in reproductive age. Subjects in the highest tertile of plasma ferritin presented the highest levels of plasma MDA (p<0.001) and CAT activity (p<0.05). Furthermore, these Subjects presented the lowest levels of CuZn-SOD activity (p<0.01). No significant associations were found between the tertile of plasma ferritin in GPX activ-ity. Plasma ferritin was significantly directly associated with plasma MDA levels and inversely associated with CuZn-SOD activity. Using multiple regression, Plasma ferritin levels was positively correlated with MDA levels and inversely correlated with CuZn-SOD activity. Our findings revealed an association between body iron stores and oxidative stress markers linked to atherosclerosis process. The results emphasize that iron overload would elevate the risk of coronary artery disease by promoting the lipid peroxidation.

Chronic total occlusion of coronary arteries (CTO) remains one of the most challenging lesion subsets in interventional cardiology even with the development of medical devices and operator expertise.This study sought to determine the overall success rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for this lesion in our center and to examine the relationship between variables such as pa-tients’ characteristics, clinical risk factors, lesion characteristics and procedural success rate. Clinical and coronary angiographic data of 58 patients with CTO who underwent PCI between May 2004 and November 2006 in Ghaem Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Analyses were performed us-ing the software packages SPSS (11.5 version). In this study, there were 58 CTO lesions in 41 men (70.7%) and 17 women (29.3%) with a mean occlusion time of 5 months.The overall success rate of PCI was 77.6%. There was no significant correlation between the suc-cess rate of PCI and the patient’s age, sex, clinical risk factors, history of recent MI and duration of occlusion(p>0.05).The success rate was not affected by target vessel, location of lesion, presence of stump, pres-ence of side branch at the site of occlusion and TIMI flow of artery(p>0.05).The success rate of PCI was decreased with increase in the length of occlusion and presence of bridging collaterals (P<0.05). The length of occlusion and presence of bridging collaterals affected the suc-cess rate adversely. Whereas the patients’ characteristics, clinical risk factors and other charac-teristics of coronary artery lesion had no statistically significant effect on success rate of PCI.Despite the technical difficulty of PCI in CTO lesions, this procedure can be done safely with relatively high success rate.