Alimentary lipemia, postprandial triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, and common carotid intima-media thickness in healthy, middle-aged men

Background-Alimentary lipemia has been associated with coronary heart disea se and common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT). This study was d esigned to investigate the relations of subclasses of postprandial triglyce ride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs) with IMT, Methods and Results-Ninety-six healthy 50-year-old men with an apolipoprote in (apo) E3/E3 genotype underwent an oral fat tolerance test and B-mode car otid ultrasound examination. The apo B-48 and apo B-100 contents of each fr action of TRLs were determined as a measure of chylomicron remnant and VLDL particle concentrations. In the fasting state, LDL cholesterol (P<0.05) an d basal proinsulin (P<0.05) were significantly related to IMT, whereas HDL cholesterol, plasma triglycerides, and insulin were not. In the postprandia l state, plasma triglycerides at 1 to 4 hours (P<0.01 at 2 hours), total tr iglyceride area under the curve (AUC) (P<0.05), incremental triglyceride AU C (P<0.01), and the large VLDL (Sf 60 to 400 apo B-100) concentration at 3 hours (P<0.05) were significantly related to IMT. Multivariate analyses sho wed that plasma triglycerides at 2 hours, LDL cholesterol, and basal proins ulin were consistently and independently related to IMT when cumulative tob acco consumption, alcohol intake, waist-to-hip circumference ratio, and sys tolic blood pressure were included as confounders. Conclusions-These results provide further evidence for postprandial triglyc eridemia as an independent risk factor for early atherosclerosis and also s uggest that the postprandial triglyceridemia is a better predictor of IMT t han particle concentrations of individual TRLs.