Zeitschrift für Adipositas- und Gewichtsverlusttherapie

Abstrakt

Atherosclerotic Effects of Smoking and Excess Weight

Mehmet Rami Helvaci, Yusuf Aydin and Mehmet Gundogdu

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a systemic atherosclerotic cascade terminating with multi-organ failures.   Methods: Consecutive patients with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) were studied.   Results: Study included 1,620 females and 1,240 males. Prevalences of CHD were similar in both sexes (3.8% versus 4.4%, respectively, p>0.05). Mean ages of CHD cases were 61.5 versus 63.5 years in both sexes, respectively (p>0.05). Smoking and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) were higher in males with CHD (54.5% versus 9.6%, p<0.001 and 18.1% versus 6.4%, p<0.05, respectively). On the other hand, body mass index (BMI) and white coat hypertension (WCH) were higher in females with CHD (29.7 versus 28.3 kg/m2 and 30.6% versus 23.6%) but differences were nonsignificant (p>0.05 for both) probably due to small sample sizes of the groups. Whereas low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) were higher in females with CHD, significantly (132.6 versus 115.6 mg/dL, p=0.008 and 250.3 versus 150.1 mg/dL, p=0.002, respectively). Similarly, hypertension (HT) and diabetes mellitus (DM) were also higher in females with CHD, significantly (58.0% versus 30.9%, p<0.001 and 51.6% versus 38.1%, p<0.05, respectively).   Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is a systemic atherosclerotic process exaggerated by some metabolic disorders. Smoking and excess weight may be the major triggering causes of the syndrome, and they come with similar degree of clinical severity in front. Smoking and COPD were higher in males with CHD against the higher BMI, WCH, LDL-C, TG, HT, and DM in females, resulting with similar prevalences of CHD in both sexes.