Cardiovascular disease risk factors in patients with confirmed cardiovascular disease

OBJECTIVE: To assess the magnitude of the problem of cardiovascular risk factors in hospitalized patients, and to establish cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor profiles.

METHODS: The study included 476 confirmed CVD patients selected by a multi stage stratified cluster random sampling technique in Tabriz Heart Center (Shaheed Madani Hospital), Tabriz, Iran from February 2004 to May 2005. After obtaining demographic information and performing physical examination, biochemical parameters were measured. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 10.05, where p value of <0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS: Obesity was the most common abnormality (93.5%) followed by diabetes mellitus (58.4%), low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) (45.4%), low physical activity (41.6%), high total cholesterol (40.1%), high triglyceride (37.2%), high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (30.7%), diastolic hypertension (28.4%), high systolic blood pressure (24.8%) and smoking (20%). Of the total number of patients, 93% had one risk factors for CVD, 43% had 2, 16% had 3, and 5% had 4 risk factors. The prevalence of lipid disorders in females was more than males except for low HDL-c (p<0.05). Between lipid profiles, only TG showed a correlation between age (p<0.05). It was noticed that obesity accompanied by lipid profile abnormalities as low serum levels of HDL-c and high level of TG, TC, and LDL-c were more seen in obese patients (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: This study revealed a high prevalence of risk factors in CVD patients; thus, urgent lifestyle modification is recommended.