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TUESDAY, Aug. 7, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) may not always be cardioprotective in postmenopausal women, according to a study published online July 19 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues evaluated associations of HDL-C and ion-mobility HDL particles (HDL-P) with carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque in 1,380 women participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Furthermore, the authors assessed interactions by age at and time since menopause.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that when adjusting for each other, higher HDL-P was associated with lower cIMT (P = 0.001), but HDL-C was not. Higher HDL-C, but not HDL-P, was associated with greater risk of carotid plaque presence (P = 0.04). The association of large HDL-P with cIMT was significantly modified by time since menopause, but this was not the case for small HDL-P. Specifically, higher large HDL-P was associated with higher cIMT close to menopause, but with lower cIMT later in life. In women with later age at menopause who were >10 years postmenopausal, the proatherogenic association reported for HDL-C with carotid plaque was greatest.<\/p>\n
“The results of our study are particularly interesting to both the public and clinicians because total HDL cholesterol is still used to predict cardiovascular disease risk,” Khoudary said in a statement. “High total HDL cholesterol in postmenopausal women could mask a significant heart disease risk that we still need to understand.”<\/p>\n