Diagnostic significance of lipid profile indicators for assessing chemical workers’ cardiovascular risk

Abstract

Introduction. The main cause of the able-bodied population’s death in the Russian Federation is cardiovascular diseases. It is known that one of the most important factors of cardiovascular risk is a violation of lipid metabolism, which is an indicator of atherogenesis processes activation. In this regard, it is relevant to study the lipid spectrum and its effect on the cardiovascular risk’s level for workers of various industries, who are exposed to a complex of harmful production factors. The study aims to investigate lipid metabolism and atherosclerotic processes in chemical production workers for the opportune implementation of therapeutic and preventive measures. Materials and methods of research. Comprehensive clinical and hygienic studies in the chemical industry have been carried out. Hygienic studies and assessment of working conditions of employees were accomplished using the current regulatory documents. Surveyed were divided into 3 groups: machine operators (I group), machinery repair locksmiths (II group), control and measuring devices’ locksmiths (CMD) (III group - comparison). To identify risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), a screening examination was conducted within the framework of periodic medical examinations of 3761 male workers, a study of the lipid spectrum in 846 workers. Employees with high and very high cardiovascular risk according to the SCORE system underwent in-depth medical examination using clinical laboratory, functional, ultrasound examination methods (179 people). The relative risk and etiological proportion were calculated in order to establish a causal relationship between the complex of harmful production factors and the formation of hypercholesterolemia. Results. The data of the conducted studies showed that the factors of cardiovascular risk in workers of I and II groups have harmful working conditions on the workplace (general class of working conditions 3.2), smoking, obesity, hypertension, which are more common in the group of machinery repairmen which was compared with workers of other professions. It was found that the average values of total cholesterol in blood serum, LDL cholesterol were higher in the examined I-II groups than III group. Analysis of the state of the cardiovascular system main indicators for workers of various professions obtained as a result of in-depth examination in a hospital revealed, that signs carotid arteries atherosclerotic changes were more often registered in workers of I-II groups. The revealed indicators of dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis increased in proportion to the length of service in harmful working conditions. Conclusion. The conducted research allowed to substantiate the algorithm of stage-by-stage examination, dynamic monitoring of the chemical production workers’ health’s state in order to detect atherosclerosis earlier and integrate therapeutic and preventive measures timely.