Correlation study between lipid levels and the risk of multiple system atrophy

Abstract

Objective To look for more serum biomarkers supporting the diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA) and providing more evidence for early treatment. Methods All patients and healthy controls were enrolled from January 2011 to March 2015 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Demographic features and biochemical examination results were collected. The t test was used to compare the lipid levels between MSA patients and controls. LSD-t test was used to compare the lipid levels among subtypes of MSA patients. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the influencing factors. The relevance between lipid levels and onset age, disease duration and Hoehn & Yahr stage was calculated by Spearman correlation coefficients. Results Participants included 195 MSA patients and 195 age- and gender-matched controls with no neurological diseases. The levels of total cholesterol ((4.33±0.90) mmol/L), triglyceride ((1.27±0.71) mmol/L), low-density lipoprotein (LDL; (2.70±0.76) mmol/L) were significantly lower in patients than in controls ((4.52±0.85), (1.47±0.86), (2.85±0.71) mmol/L , t=2.056, 2.528 and 2.149 respectively, all P<0.05). The levels of total cholesterol ((4.28±0.96) mmol/L) and triglyceride ((1.20±0.64) mmol/L) were significantly lower in MSA-P patients than in control group ((4.52±0.85), (1.47±0.86) mmol/L; LSD-t=1.983, 2.566, both P<0.05). After adjusting for age, gender and histories, the odds ratio (OR) was 0.31 (95% CI 0.15-0.65, P=0.002) for MSA patients in the highest quartile of triglyceride and 0.38 (95% CI 0.17-0.83, P=0.016) for those in the highest quartile of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), compared with the lowest quartiles. And HDL level was in a significantly positive correlation with onset age(r=0.15, P=0.039). Conclusion Our data suggest that triglyceride and HDL may be associated with the prevalence of MSA, and the lower levels of HDL, the earlier onset of MSA. Key words: Multiple system atrophy; Lipid; Multivariate Logistic regression