Homocysteine-Is there any role in Coronary Heart Disease?

Abstract

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that the coronary heart disease is associated with high serum homocysteine and low vitamin B-12, and folic acid concentrations. Methods: In this population-based case control study, 116 coronary artery diseases with appropriate ECG and/or Echo findings and 96 controls without abnormal ECG and/or Echo findings were selected as the study population. Results: The mean value of serum homocysteine levels of the cases (16.88 μ mol/L ± 10.84) was not significantly higher than the values of the control group (14.18 ± 4.19 μ mol/L) (p=0.02). The mean value of folic acid levels was lower both in male and female cases than that in controls but this difference was also not statistically significant (p= 0.51& 0.05).The mean B12 level also showing higher level in male and female cases but not significantly higher than those of their control group (p=0.48 & 0.62 ). Serum lipid profile [Total Cholesterol TCHL, Low density lipoproteins (LDL), High density lipoproteins (HDL), Triglyceride (TG)] was also found to be inadequate as a potential predictive risk factor in this particular population. Conclusion: These results do not support the hypothesis that coronary heart disease is related to high serum homocysteine concentration. The results are not conclusive due to inability to adequately control for potential confounders as well as inadequate sample size