The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

Correlation between Lipoprotein(a) and Abdominal Aorta Thickness and Aortic and Mitral Valve Sclerosis

Min Soo Kim, Keun Bae You, Sang Woon Lee, Yang Hee Lim, Gil Ja Shin*, Hong-Keun Cho*

Copyright ⓒ 1998. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Sep 30, 1998

Abstract

Background

An elevated serum lipoprotein(a) level is an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic diseases, and the lipoprotein(a) level is correlated to preclinical atherosclerosis. To evaluate the association between lipoprotein(a) and aortic selerosis, mitral sclerosis, and abdominal aorta thickness, we measured the aortic valve thickness, mitral valve thickness and abdominal aorta thickness. Also, we assessed the relationship between the aortic valve sclerosis, mitral valve sclerosis, abdominal aorta thickness and other coronary risk factors.

Method

We measured serum lipoprotein(a) in 116 patients(52 men, 64 women) with mean age of 58.7±13.9 years. Aortic valve thickness was assessed by parasternal long and short axis two dimensional echocardiography, mitral valve thickness was measured by apical 4 chamber view. The abdominal aorta thickness was measured by the subcostal view.

Result

The level of lipoprotein(a) was significantly correlated with the aortic valve thickness, but not with the miral valve thickness and the abdominal aorta thickness. lipoprotein(a) level was higher in smoking patients(p<0.05), and not related to other ariables such as blood pressure, age, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein. Coronary angiography was performed in 18 paitents, and there was a tendency of the coronary artery disease with high level of the lipoprotein(a)(p<0.005). There was no significant difference in the thickness of aortic valve in terms of sex, blood pressure, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, triglyceride or blodo sugar.

Conclusion

We conclude that increased serum levels of lipoprotein(a) are closely related to aortic valve sclerosis and may be a risk factor for coronary artery disease.

Keywords: Lipoprotein(a); Aortic sclerosis; Mitral sclerosis; Abdominal aorta thickness; Echocardiography