[The association between serum GGT level within normal range and risk factors of cardiovascular diseases]

Abstract

Objectives: We conducted this study to examine the association between serum GGT levels within the normal range and the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases

Methods: We examined the cross-sectional association between serum GGT and the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol), and uric acid among 975 subjects that participated in the health examination of a university hospital located in Daegu city. All the patients' GGT levels were within the normal range.

Results: After adjustment were made for age, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, drinking frequency, exercise frequency and coffee intake, the serum GGT level was positively associated with fasting blood glucose (p < 0.01), total cholesterol (p < 0.01), and triglyceride (p < 0.01) in men, and it was positively associated with fasting blood glucose (p < 0.01), total cholesterol (p < 0.05), triglyceride (p < 0.01), and uric acid (p < 0.01) in women. The associations were not significantly different depending on the status of alcohol drinking or obesity, except for the associations of serum GGT with diastolic blood pressure (P for interaction = 0.04) and uric acid (P for interaction = 0.04) between the lean and obese subjects.

Conclusions: Serum GGT levels within the normal range were positively associated with fasting blood glucose, triglyceride and uric acid in most subgroups irrespective of the drinking or obesity status. These results suggest that GGT has important clinical implications as being more than just a marker of alcohol consumption and hepatobiliary disease.