Homocysteine levels and its correlation to metabolic syndrome in 25-64 years old residents of the Tehran medical university population lab

ABSTRACT

Homocysteine is regarded as a risk factor for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. It is of great importance to determine exact risk factors of these disorders because of their high prevalence. The 25-64 year old individuals in 17th district of Tehran were studied. It was designed according to the WHO MONICA [Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease] project using the ATP III criteria. Homocysteine levels higher than 15 mmol/l and Folate and vitamin B12 lower than 11 nmol/l and 185 pmol/l, respectively were considered as abnormal. Of the whole population, prevalence of abnormal homocysteine, Folic acid and vitamin B12 was 54.5%, 98.2% and 27%, respectively. Homocysteine levels were higher in men than women [P= 0.026]. None of the differences between the means of these three risk factors were statistically significant in people with and without the metabolic syndrome. The only significant difference was higher homocysteine levels in women with metabolic syndrome [P= 0.010]. According to this study, hyperhomocysteinemia and Folate and vitamin B12 deficiency are more prevalent in our population. But there was no correlation between these factors and risk of metabolic syndrome. Because of the controversy about this issue and high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in our country, further studies are suggested