Relationship Between Homocysteine and Indices of Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Body Composition and Blood Pressure

• Published in: The FASEB journal 2006-03, Vol.20 (4), p.A592-A592
• Main Authors: Hanson, KB, Bhupathiraju, SN, Ritland, LM, Stewart, JW, Hanson, LN, Reddy, MB, Alekel, DL
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0892-6638; 1530-6860
• DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.A592

Menopause increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), partially due to increases in total homocysteine (tHcy), blood pressure (BP), lipids, and central adiposity. We examined the relationship between tHcy and indices of CVD risk in 121 healthy postmenopausal women. We used dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry to assess whole body composition and subregion (waist, hip, thigh) soft tissue distribution and HPLC to measure tHcy. The androidal mass is defined as the waist plus hip regions; gynoidal mass as the thigh region. Because some variables were not normally distributed, we used Spearman’s rho correlation analysis. Contrary to our hypothesis, tHcy was not related to central adiposity (sagittal diameter, p=0.36; androidal‐to‐gynoidal (A‐G) fat mass ratio, p=0.85) but was related to overall adiposity (whole body % fat, p=0.004; BMI, p=0.019). Diastolic BP was correlated not only to overall adiposity (p=0.002) but also to A‐G fat mass ratio (p=0.005). The relationship of diastolic BP to central adiposity was also reflected in its relationship to % fat at the waist (p=0.005) and hip (p=0.005) but not thigh (p=0.29). Diastolic BP was also related positively to tHcy (p=0.046) but not to HDL cholesterol (p=0.79). HDL cholesterol was inversely related to soft tissue measures but not to tHcy (p=0.48). Although the common thread for increased CVD risk is adiposity, further studies are needed to corroborate the lack of relationship of tHcy to central adiposity in contrast to its link to overall adiposity. Supported by National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases/NIH (AR046922 A2), American Heart Assoc