Serum lipids and atherogenic risk in sickle-cell trait carriers

This work studies the relationship between a common genetic marker in our population, sickle-cell trait, and atherogenic risk factors. One hundred and twenty-two healthy subjects were studied. Forty-six subjects had normal haemoglobin (HB-AA) while 76 had sickle-cell trait Hb-AS. Mean cholesterol level was higher in subjects with sickle-cell trait (2.82 +/- 0.21 g/I) than in subjects with normal haemoglobin (2.08 +/- 0.40 g/I) used as controls. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). HDL cholesterol levels remained in the normal range in controls (Hb-AA) (0.560 +/- 0.10 g/I) while subjects with Hb-AS had high HDL-c levels (0.618 +/- 0.30 g/I). Mean LDL cholesterol levels in Hb-AS subjects were about 57% higher than those in controls (1.84 +/- 0.10 g/I and 1.17 +/- 0.30 g/I, respectively) (p < 0.05). Apolipoprotein A1 levels of Hb-AS subjects were lower (1.37 +/- 0.10 g) than those of Hb-AA subjects (1.98 +/- 0.15 g/I), (p < 0.05) while apolipoprotein B concentrations of Hb-AS subjects were higher (1.70 +/- 0.27 g/I) than in controls (1.30 +/- 0.10 g/I) (p < 0.05). The atherogenicity index given by the Apo-B/Apo-AI ratio was higher in Hb-AS subjects (1.24) than in those with normal haemoglobin (0.65). We conclude that Hb-AS subjects are at high atherogenic risk if subsequent diet management is not undertaken.