Lipoprotein(a) Concentrations in Adult Congenital Heart Disease Patients

Abstract

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) contributes to the formation to atherosclerosis, promotes inflammation and stimulates prothrombotic processes. One hundred seventeen adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients and 152 controls were studied to compare serum Lp(a) concentrations in different subgroups of congenital heart abnormalities. Analytically, Lp(a), total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were studied. In congenital heart disease patients, N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels were also determined. Thirty-nine (25.6%) patients in the control group and 33 (28.2) ACHD patients (2 hypoxemic and 31 nonhypoxemic) had a Lp(a) concentration higher than 30 mg/dL. No significant differences were seen between patients with Lp(a) concentration ≤30 or >30 mg/dL after performing a binary logistic regression multivariate analysis including as covariates all the variables that showed significance (P < .001) between the case and control groups (age, gender, CRP, and total, LDL, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) besides being congenital or not. Similarly, no significant differences were found between ACHD patients with Lp(a) concentration lower and higher than 30 mg/dL after performing a multivariate analysis in which age, sex, body mass index, LDL-cholesterol levels, and being or not hypoxemic were included as covariates. Pearson's correlation showed a significant positive correlation (0.27) between LDL-cholesterol and Lp(a) concentrations (P = .004) and between CRP and N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels (0.19) in ACHD patients (P = .035). Adult congenital heart disease patients showed lower serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels than no-congenital patients although no significant differences were seen in Lp(a) concentrations between both groups.