Serum lipids, apolipoproteins, and mortality among coronary artery disease patients.

The proatherogenic effect of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and antiatherogenic effect of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) have been confirmed in general population. But controversy arises among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. The goal of this study was to identify the association of different lipid measurements with CAD prognosis. The study cohort included 1916 CAD patients who were 40-85 years of age. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the association of baseline 6 lipid factors and 3 ratios with all-cause and cardiovascular (CVD) mortality. During a median follow-up of 3.1 years, 147 deaths were recorded, 113 of which were due to CVD. When lipid factors were categorized, HDL-C showed a U-shape association with all-cause and CVD mortality after adjustment for major CVD risk factors. Serum LDL-C, apoB, LDL/HDL ratio, and apoB/apoA-I ratio were positively, and apoA-I level was inversely associated with the risk of CVD mortality. After further pairwise comparison of lipid-related risk, LDL/HDL ratio and LDL-C had stronger association with all-cause and CVD mortality than other proatherogenic measurements among Chinese CAD patients.