High Risk Coronary Heart Disease, Lipid Fractions and Transferrin Saturation among Hypertensive Nigerians

Background and Objectives: Hypertension and hypercholesterolemia are well established independent risk factors of coronary heart disease. Moreover, drug treatment of hypertension also affects lipid metabolism. Recently, body iron status has also been implicated as a risk factor of coronary heart disease. It is not however clear whether hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia directly or indirectly influences body iron status. This study was therefore decided to look at the association between transferrin saturation and hypercholesterolaemia in adult hypertensive Nigerians with high risk Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) lipid fraction. Materials and Methods: The study group comprises eighty two adult Nigerians who are known hypertensives with high risk coronary heart disease lipid fraction: that is the ratio of high density lipoprotein cholesterol to total cholesterol (HDL-C/TC) <= 0.13 while the control subjects comprises eighty adult Nigerians who are also known hypertensives with normal HDL-C/TC ratio (>=0.30). Results: The total iron binding capacity is not significantly different between the two groups. Also, serum iron and transferrin saturation were not significantly different in the two groups. Transferrin saturation does not show appreciable correlation with total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in any of the two groups. Conclusion: The association between transferrin saturation and hypercholesterolaemia in hypertensive is not strong enough to possibly suggest that one influences the other. However, the influence of antihypertensive drugs on lipid metabolism cannot be ruled out in this study because subjects and controls were not selected based on type or class of medication. Keywords: transferrin saturation, high risk CHD lipid fraction, hypertensives.