[Plasma homocysteine concentrations in Mexican patients with ischemic heart disease]

Several risk factors for the development of coronary atherosclerosis (CA) have been identified. These included hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking and diabetes mellitus. As well as elevated plasma homocysteine (tHcys) levels, is considered an independent risk factor for CA in some American and Europeans studies, but its association are scare in Latin-American population. We therefore conducted a case-control study to explore this issue in Mexican population.

Eighty eight patients with scintigraphic evidence of CAD or history of myocardial infarction compared with a control group of 96 individuals were analyzed. tHcys were measured in all subject's serum samples. Conventional risk factors were also analyzed.

A high prevalence of hyperhomocystinemia with no significant difference between the 2 groups was found. The mean concentration of tHcys was 13.9 micromol/L (SD +/- 6.9) in the CA group; and 14.8 micromol/L (SD +/- 7.3) in the control group. We did not obtain a statistical difference on tHcys concentration between patients with and without others risk factors, like diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking and obesity.

Ours results shown a high prevalence of hyperhomocystinemia (> 12 micromol/L) in Mexican people. However these high levels were not associated with evidence of CA. More studies in our population are warranted to clarify the possible influence of homocysteine on coronary atherosclerosis.