THE ASSOCIATION OF LOW PLASMA TESTOSTERONE LEVEL WITH CORONARY-ARTERYDISEASE IN CHINESE MEN

The incidence rate and mortality of coronary heart disease (CHD) is ob viously higher in men than in women, which may be related to the influ ence of plasma lipoprotein metabolism by endogenous,sex hormones. We d etermined plasma testosterone (TTT), estradiol, total cholesterol (TC) , triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), HDL 2-C, HDL3-C, apolipoprotein (Ape) AI, Apo B100 and lipoprotein (a) [Lp (a)] in 201 subjects, among them 102 patients with CHD and 99 healthy subjects. It was found that, mean plasma TTT levels in patients with C AD (252+/-125 ng/ml) was significantly lower than in the healthy subje cts (412+/-309 ng/ml). There was a negative association between plasma TTT level and plasma TG level (r = -0.239; P<0.001) and Lp(a) (r = -0 .163, P<0.05), and a positive association between plasma TTT level and HDL-C (r=0.301, P<0.001) and HDL3-C (r=0.328, P<0.001). The results i n the present study suggest that low plasma TTT level may De a risk fa ctor for CHD, which may relate to the influence of plasma lipoprotein metabolism by endogenous testosterone. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Irela nd Ltd.