Triglycerides plus high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol dyslipidaemia, a coronary risk factor in elderly women: the CArdiovascular STudy in the ELderly

Background: The relationship between serum triglycerides (TG) level and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality remains controversial. Aims: To evaluate whether TG level is a risk factor for CHD in elderly people from general population, and to look for interactions between TG and other risk factors. Methods: 3257 subjects aged >= 65 years followed up for 12 years from the CArdiovascular STudy in the ELderly. Blood tests and anthropometric measurements were performed. Continuous items were divided into quintiles and, for each quintile, adjusted hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for CHD mortality was derived by genders from Cox analysis. Results: In women, the HR of being in the fifth rather than in the first quintile of TG was 2.45 (CI 1.48-3.51). In turn, high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) inversely predicted CHD mortality; the HR of being in the first rather than in the fifth quintiles of HDL-C was 1.52 (CI 1.24-2.36). The risk of CHD mortality further increased up to 3.81 (CI 1.62-5.43) when high TG and low HDL-C were combined. No predictive role for either TG or HDL-C was detected in men. Conclusions: TG and HDL-C were independent predictors of CHD mortality in elderly women. The combination high TG+low HDL-C quadrupled the risk of CHD mortality in this gender only.