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Association of atherosclerosis-related markers and its relationship to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids levels with a prevalence of coronary artery disease in an urban area in Japan

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Abstract

Higher intakes of fish and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3PUFAs: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)) are associated with a reduced risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). We investigated the relationships between fish-derived n-3PUFAs and prevalence of CAD, and to assess the association of n-3PUFAs with atherosclerosis-related markers in an urban area. This study was designed as a hospital-based cross-sectional study on 649 consecutive outpatients who had undergone regular examinations between April 2009 and October 2009. After adjustments for the coronary risk factors in a multilogistic regression analysis of variables for which a significant difference was identified between the group of patients with a prevalence of CAD and the group with no prevalence of CAD, the multivariable odds ratio (95 % confidence interval) was 0.394 (0.205/0.760; P = 0.005) for the highest (92.4–373.5 μg/ml) versus lowest (6.2–40.0 μg/ml) quartile of serum EPA values and 0.433 (0.228/0.824; P = 0.011) for the highest (160.7–451.8 μg/ml) versus lowest (35.7–100.7 μg/ml) quartile of serum DHA values. Multivariate regression analyses after adjustment for risk factors showed that higher serum EPA and DHA levels were independent variables of a higher level of serum apolipoprotein A-1, a major compound of high-density lipoprotein. However, the results suggested that there might be conflicting effects of EPA and DHA in regard of the serum levels of other lipid markers. This cross-sectional study suggests that higher serum levels of n-3PUFAs were associated with a lower prevalence of CAD and an increase in serum apolipoprotein A-1 level, even in an urban area.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by KAKENHI Grant Number 23590757 of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Conflict of interest

All of the authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Surugadai Nihon University Hospital, 1-8-13 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-8309, Japan

    Shigemasa Tani & Ken Nagao

  2. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Shigemasa Tani, Ken Nagao & Atsushi Hirayama

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  1. Shigemasa Tani
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  2. Ken Nagao
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Correspondence to Shigemasa Tani.

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Tani, S., Nagao, K. & Hirayama, A. Association of atherosclerosis-related markers and its relationship to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids levels with a prevalence of coronary artery disease in an urban area in Japan. Heart Vessels 30, 9–19 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-013-0442-y

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