Abstract

In women with coronary artery disease (CAD), clinical presentation is different enough from men which lead to missed or delayed diagnosis of CAD. We therefore assessed the major risk factors and biomarkers in female subjects with CAD. Venous sample of control, unstable angina (UA) and myocardial infarction (MI) patients were taken. In Both UA and MI patients, predominant risk factor was menopause (76.7% UA, 86.7% MI) followed by hypertension (56.7%UA, 60% MI), central obesity (56.7% MI, 56.7% UA), dyslipidemia (50% UA, 50% MI) and diabetes mellitus (50% UA, 33.3% MI). Total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were highly significant (p<0.001) in MI and UA as compared to controls. LDL cholesterol was significantly increased (p<0.05) in MI as compared to UA. Triglycerides and HDL-Cholesterol were also increased but not at the significant level (p>0.05). Apolipoprotein (ApoB), small dense LDL and oxidized- LDL (Ox-LDL) were highly significant (p<0.001) in MI and UA as compared to controls.  Based on discriminate analysis ox-LDL is a potential marker to discriminate cases of UA from controls while ApoB is the reliable marker which can discriminate the cases of MI from UA and controls.

Key words: Coronary artery disease, dyslipidemia, apolipoprotein B, small dense LDL, oxidized LDL.