Atherogenic Plasma Index in a Young Non-Obese Caucasian Population

Abstract

Cardiovascular risk is based on age, gender, smoking, systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol.Although it is well documented that the atherosclerosis process starts early in life, the risk is very clearly defined only for fatal events and only for persons above 40 years old. Besides the Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidaemias, other factors such as atherogenic plasma index (AIP) or adipokine levels have certain predictive information about this risk. The aim of our study was to assess the gender differences in AIP in a young non-obese adult population. We selected 85 young adults without a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome or related medical conditions. The metabolic syndrome components were measured and those (2 subjects) with 3 established metabolic syndrome criteria were excluded. The average AIP value on the whole group was 0.07. When stratifying the risk according to the AIP value, the majority of the participants were in the low risk range (51 participants representing 61.4% of the total), 18 (21.6%) were included in the high risk, and 15 (18%), in the medium risk category. The average AIP in women's group was 0.02, and in men's group, 0.18 (p<0.001). Our preliminary results suggest that, for screening purposes, the AIP threshold should be different according to gender. To confirm this finding, a large longitudinal study is needed.