Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Feb;21(2):281-8.
doi: 10.1097/00004872-200302000-00018.

Serum lipoprotein(a) concentrations and alcohol consumption in hypertension: possible relevance for cardiovascular damage

Cristiana Catena  1 , Marileda Novello, Luciana Dotto, Sergio De Marchi, Leonardo A Sechi
Affiliations

Serum lipoprotein(a) concentrations and alcohol consumption in hypertension: possible relevance for cardiovascular damage

Cristiana Catena et al. J Hypertens. 2003 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the relationships between alcohol intake and serum lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], a powerful predictor of organ damage, in patients with essential hypertension with a wide range of alcohol intake, and to investigate whether the association between alcohol intake and serum Lp(a) concentrations occurs over the entire spectrum of apo(a) phenotypes.

Design: Cross-sectional study of a case series.

Setting: University medical centre.

Patients: Four hundred and two patients with untreated essential hypertension recruited at a hypertension clinic.

Main outcome measures: Serum Lp(a) concentrations, apo(a) isoforms, alcohol consumption, smoking habits and cardiovascular status.

Results: No difference in Lp(a) concentrations was observed between teetotalers and occasional drinkers. Light drinkers (1-20 g/day ethanol), moderate drinkers (21-50 g/day), and heavy drinkers (> 50 g/day) had, respectively, 21, 26 and 57% lower median Lp(a) concentrations than teetotalers and occasional drinkers. Similar findings were obtained when male and female patients were analysed separately. Log Lp(a) concentrations were inversely and independently correlated with alcohol consumption in both men and women with hypertension. The frequency distributions of apo(a) isoforms and liver function parameters were comparable across the different alcohol intake groups. Patients with evidence of cardiovascular damage had greater concentrations of serum Lp(a) and higher frequency of low-molecular weight apo(a) isoforms as compared with patients without such evidence.

Conclusions: Serum Lp(a) is inversely and dose-dependently related with alcohol intake in patients with hypertension, and this relationship is independent of the size distribution of apo(a) isoforms. Reduction of Lp(a) concentrations by regular consumption of alcohol might favourably affect the atherosclerotic risk profile of patients with hypertension and thereby decrease cardiovascular morbidity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types