Biology and Medicine

Abstract

The Relation between Trace Elements Levels and Some Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Patients with Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease in Basra

Jamal A. Al-Dohan, Nazar S.Haddad, Hassan Al-Rubaye and Massarah M. Jawad

Objective: This study was performed in order to compare the levels of serum zinc, copper as well as iron in obstructive CAD patients with non CAD patients in Basra and to address the relation of these elements with some cardiovascular risk factors like Diabetes and hypertension. Subjects and Methods: In a retrospective study, we evaluated 200 patients who underwent coronary angiography at AL- Basra Cardiac Center at Al-Sader Teaching Hospital. They were separated into two groups: case (patients with obstructive CAD) and non CAD. About two milliliters of venous blood samples were taken for measuring zinc, copper and iron. For statistical analyses, chi-square test, Student’s t-test and the logistic regression were used. Results: The demographic and baseline clinical characteristics were not statistically different between the groups in terms of age, sex and BMI. Serum concentrations of zinc (56.60 ± 11.68 vs. 103.23 ± 20.62 µg/dl ,p=0.0001) was statistically lower in patient group, serum copper (171.27 ± 28.87 vs. 121.33 ± 28.52 µg/dl, p=0.0001) was significantly higher in CAD patients while serum iron (113.33 ± 24.15 vs. 118.73 ± 23.95 µg/dl, p=0.115) was insignificantly tended to be lower in CAD patients. In subgroups of CAD patients according to DM and HT they had a significant (p value<0.05) higher level of copper and low level of zinc in diabetic and hypertensive than non-diabetic and normotensive respectively(p value<0.05). There was no statistical significant difference in the serum level of iron observed in these sub groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: Low level of zinc and high level of copper may play a role in the pathogenesis of CAD while no such relation for serum iron as well as in diabetic and hypertensive CAD sub grouping; we found that these risk factors are affect positively on copper, while negatively on zinc. Moreover, insignificant effect is observed on serum iron level.