Asma Nafisa

Objective: Dyslipidemia is a noticeable cause of morbidity and mortality. The purpose of the study was to analyse the cholesterol and triglyceride levels of patients presenting for lipid profile. Methods: A total of 9989 participants presenting to Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, for the Lipid profile assessment were enrolled in this study. The participants were included irrespective of age and gender. Data was retrieved from HMIS for the last 7 years (2015-2022). Enzymatic colourimetric techniques were used to examine the serum levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides. Dyslipidemia was defined based on standard guidelines by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. Results: Out of the total of 9989 presented with signs and symptoms of dyslipidemia, 401(4%) were subjects under 19 years of age. Among the adult patients, 4283(44 .7%) were males and 5305 (55.3%) were females. Females have significantly high concentrations of cholesterol median (min-max), 203.25(48-1157) as compared to males, 196.95 (2-924). Mann Whitney, p value= 0.0001. Significant. difference was not observed for the concentrations of triglycerides in both genders (p=0.761) Substantial difference in concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides was observed in different age groups Kruskal Wallise H 145.09 p –value 0.0001, Kruskal Wallise H 171 51 .09 p –value 0.0001 , respectively. Conclusion: Highest number of patient with dyslipidemia were observed in age group between 40-52 years. Mean cholesterol level in females were significantly higher as compared to males. Prevalence of isolated hypercholesterolemia and isolated hypertriglyceridemia in our study was 50.3% and 59.9% respectively.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the principal contributor to global mortality and morbidity. Chronic stress has emerged as a strong prognostic factor for cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to measure hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in patients with angiographically confirmed coronary atherosclerosis and find the association between HCC and classic cardiovascular risk factors in a case-control study. The study included 500 angiographically confirmed coronary atherosclerosis patients and 500 age and sex-matched controls having no coronary stenosis. Hair cortisol concentration was assessed from a single sample of scalp hair by ELISA. Perceived stress scale 10 was used to evaluate the stress level of the participants. Spearman rank correlation was applied to find the association between hair cortisol level and classic cardiovascular risk factors. Multivariate regression was executed to assess the independent contribution of hair cortisol concentration as a coronary atherosclerosis risk factor. Median hair cortisol concentration was significantly high in patients with angiographically documented coronary atherosclerosis compared to controls (158(17.6–1331.3) pg/mg versus 73 (13.4–889) pg/mg. Hair cortisol concentration showed a significant positive correlation with BMI r = 525 and Hb1Ac r = 665 (both, p = ≤0.0001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting for all the confounding variables, HCC, matched odds ratio (MOR), 10.73;95%CI (1.60,42.09) p-value = 0.001 remained the most significant predictor of coronary atherosclerosis.