Trace elements, heavy metals and vitamin levels in patients with coronary artery disease

In the present study, we aimed to assess serum concentrations of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), vitamins A (retinol), D (cholecalciferol) and E (α-tocopherol) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and to compare with healthy controls.

A total of 30 CAD patients and 20 healthy subjects were included in this study. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (UNICAM-929) was used to measure heavy metal and trace element concentrations. Serum α-tocopherol, retinol and cholecalciferol were measured simultaneously by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Demographic and baseline clinical characteristics were not statistically different between the groups. Serum concentrations of retinol (0.3521 ± 0.1319 vs. 0.4313 ± 0.0465 mmol/I, p=0.013), tocopherol (3.8630 ± 1.3117 vs. 6.9124 ± 1.0577 mmol/I, p<0.001), cholecalciferol (0.0209 ± 0.0089 vs. 0.0304±0.0059 mmol/I, p<0.001) and Fe (0.5664 ± 0.2360 vs. 1.0689 ± 0,4452 µg/dI, p<0.001) were significantly lower in CAD patients. In addition, while not statistically significant serum Cu (1.0164 ± 0.2672 vs. 1.1934 ± 0.4164 µg/dI, p=0.073) concentrations were tended to be lower in patients with CAD, whereas serum lead (0.1449 ± 0.0886 vs. 0.1019 ± 0.0644 µg/dI, p=0.069) concentrations tended to be higher.

Serum level of trace elements and vitamins may be changed in patients with CAD. In this relatively small study we found that serum levels of retinol, tocopherol, cholecalciferol, iron and copper may be lower whereas serum lead concentrations may be increased in patients with CAD.