Dyslipidemia and cerebral atrophy among health check-up individuals: A cross-sectional study

To examine the association between dyslipidemia and cerebral atrophy in Chinese health check-up population.

67,526 participants underwent routine health check-ups at the health management center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University (FAH-SYSU) in Guangzhou for two years (2022-2023) in this cross-sectional study. Cerebral atrophy was determined by expert physicians based on non-contrast scans of Head Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) and/or Head Computed Tomography (CT). The levels of Total Cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) were measured and classified by quartiles into four categories, respectively. The multivariable logistic regression model was used to obtain the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

A total of 1,661 participants were included with ages from 18 to 93 years. Among 1,661 participants, 121 (7.28%) had cerebral atrophy. On multivariate analysis, TC and LDL-C were not associated with cerebral atrophy, although TC and LDL-C were lower in the subgroup with cerebral atrophy.

This cross-sectional study conducted in China is the first to identify that health check-up examinees with cerebral atrophy had lower levels of TC and LDL-C raising the possible association between lower levels of TC and LDL-C with cerebral atrophy, and possible cognitive dysfunction. Future study is planned to overcome the existing limitation and address the lack of statistically significant association between TC and LDL-C levels with cerebral atrophy and possible dementia.