Association of serum concentrations of total testosterone with coronary heart disease in the postmenopausal women / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the association between serum concentrations of total testosterone levels and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the postmenopausal women. Methods The study was designed as a case-control study.394 postmenopausal female patients were selected from Cardiology Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University.The case group included 183 women patients with CHD aged (62.7±8.0) years,the control group,211 women with normal coronary aged (60.0 ± 8.8) years. Blood samples were collected to determine total testosterone,fasting glucose and lipid profile. CHD severity was expressed as the numbers of coronary arteries that had a stenosis ≥50％.According to the level of testosteron,all cases were divided into 4 groups by interquartile range method:Q1＜3.5 nmol/L(n=190),3.5 nmol/L≤Q2 ＜10.4 nmol/L(n=64),10.4 nmol/L≤Q3 ＜26.0 nmol/L(n=120) and Q4≥26.0 nmol/L(n=20).The association between the serum total testosterone levels and severity of coronary atherosclerosis was analyzed. Results The average total testosterone was higher in case group than in control group[(10.4 ± 24.3 ) nmol/L vs. ( 6.9 ± 17.4 ) nmol/L,Z =0.79,P =0.555].In Quantitative adjusted models,higher levels of total testosterone had strong correlation with CHD,Q4 incidence of CHD (75.0％,15 cases) was significantly higher than Q1 (46.8％,89 cases),Q2 (40.6％,26 cases)and Q3 (44.2％,53 cases) (x2 =7.69,P=0.048).After adjustment for other risk factors,women in the top quartile of total testosterone levels had a more than 3-fold increase in odds of CHD(OR=3.47,95％CI1.06-11.32,P＜0.05).In addition,the serum concentrations of total testosterone level were significantly associated with the severity of CHD (F=12.94,P＜0.05). Conclusions Higher levels of total testosterone may be associated with high prevalence and severity of CHD as an independent factor in postmenopausal women.