Apolipoprotein A-I as a marker of angiographically assessed coronary-artery disease

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 309; no. 7; p. 385
• Main Authors: Maciejko, J J, Holmes, D R, Kottke, B A, Zinsmeister, A R, Dinh, D M, Mao, S J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 18-08-1983
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Apolipoprotein A-I; Apolipoproteins - blood; Apolipoproteins B; Cholesterol - blood; Cholesterol, HDL; Coronary Angiography; Coronary Disease - blood; Coronary Disease - diagnosis; Coronary Disease - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Lipoproteins, HDL - blood; Male; Middle Aged
• ISSN: 0028-4793
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM198308183090701

This study was designed to determine whether the plasma level of apolipoprotein A-I is a better discriminator of angiographically documented coronary-artery disease than the level of high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in male subjects. The level of plasma apolipoprotein A-I in 83 patients with coronary-artery disease was 96.7 +/- 4.2 mg per deciliter (mean +/- S.E.M.), which was significantly lower (P less than 0.0001) than the level in 25 patients without coronary-artery disease (146.9 +/- 2.1 mg per deciliter). The levels of HDL cholesterol were also lower (P less than 0.0001) in patients with coronary-artery disease (31.9 +/- 1.5 mg per deciliter) than in those without it (45.9 +/- 2.3 mg per deciliter). A stepwise discriminant analysis, however, indicated the superiority of apolipoprotein A-I over HDL cholesterol in detecting coronary-artery disease. Furthermore, a linear discriminant analysis suggested that although HDL cholesterol by itself was a discriminator of coronary-artery disease, it did not provide a substantial increase in discriminatory value over that provided by apolipoprotein A-I; in contrast, apolipoprotein A-I levels added discriminatory value to the information obtained by measuring HDL cholesterol alone. We conclude that apolipoprotein A-I by itself is more useful than HDL cholesterol for identifying patients with coronary-artery disease.