BACKGROUND:
More
attention is given to oxidative hypothesis which causes
atherosclerosis to be recognized as inflammatory response. The relationship between
serum ferritin which catalyzes
lipid peroxidation and
high sensitivity C-reactive protein which reflects vascular
inflammation was investigated among
adults in a
health promotion center.
METHODS:
The study group consisted of 297
men and
women (
men 86,
women 211)
who visited the
health promotion center of a
hospital in
Seoul to have a
health checkup from October 1, 2004 to April 1, 2005. These subjects answered the questionnares and were measured in the following;
blood tests, brachial-
ankle pulse wave velocity and several anthropometric measurements.
Statistical analysis was performed on 111 subjects after exclusion of those subjects
who were taking
antihypertensive agents or
antidiabetic agents, and
who had acute inflammatory
diseases, acute liver diseases,
anemia, and
who had a WBC > or =11,000x10(3)/mm3 or a
serum ferritin > or =200 ug/L or a ABI (
Ankle Brachial Index) <0.9.
RESULTS:
The average
serum ferritin concentration of
men against
women was 132.57+/-43.12 ng/ml to 78.23+/-38.10 ng/ml which means that
men have about 1.7 times as high concentration than
women (P<0.001).
Serum ferritin was significantly correlated with
high sensitivity C-reactive protein (r=0.332). Even in multiple stepwise
regression analysis, there was a independent relationship between
serum ferritin and
high sensitivity C-reactive protein (beta=0.138, P=0.010). When we analyzed with distinction of
sex, this relationship in
women was constant (beta=0.131, P=0.031), but
serum ferritin in
men just showed the trend of correlation with BMI (beta=9.510, P=0.059).
CONCLUSION:
There is a significant relationship between the increase of
serum ferritin and
high sensitivity C-reactive protein in healthy
women; furthermore, studies in
men need to be confirmed.