Early cardiac change after menopause-an open level comparative study

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide which is more prevalent in women after menopause. Hormonal changes associated with menopause are accountable for dyslipidemia pattern that causes CVD and associated complications. Therefore, the present study was commenced to compare the lipid profile in pre- and postmenopausal women. A total of 100 samples were collected from women, 50 from premenopausal and 50 from postmenopausal women, and analyzed for Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG), High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL-). TC, TG, HDL, and LDL were highly significantly increased in postmenopausal women when compared to premenopausal women. DL/HDL ratio was significantly elevated in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. MI was significantly positively correlated with TC and TG in both pre- and postmenopausal population and it was positively correlated with HDL in the premenopausal population while negatively correlated in the postmenopausal population. Since more of the atherogenic lipid parameters are increased in postmenopausal women, they appear to be more prone to have CVD and associated complications in the near future. Hence, it is mandatory to monitor and manage dyslipidemia patterns in every woman experiencing menopause. To investigate whether menopause may induce left ventricular structural and functional adaptations in normotensive and hypertensive women, we compared in a case-control setting 50 untreated hypertensive premenopausal women with 50 postmenopausal women and 50 normotensive premenopausal women with 50 postmenopausal women. Subjects were individually physically examined & matched by age (38.2±5.9years to 50±1.03years), clinic systolic blood pressure (128.6±1.05mm Hg & 134±1.2mm Hg), clinic diastolic blood pressure (74.6±1.3mm Hg & 74.6±1.2mm Hg), and body mass index (55.3±8.8kg to 55.6±5.9kg) respectively. We conclude that menopause is associated with blunted day-night blood pressure reduction, impaired left the ventricular systolic performance, and concentric left ventricular geometric pattern. These findings are independent of the presence or absence of high blood pressure.