High cholesterol ups MI risk more in men than women

(HealthDay)—Dyslipidemia seems to be more dangerous for men than women with regard to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) risk, according to a study published in the September issue of Epidemiology.

Erik Madssen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and colleagues analyzed data from a prospective, population-based cohort involving 23,525 women and 20,725 men aged younger than 60 years at baseline to examine the differential effect of dyslipidemia by sex. Participants were followed for 12 years for a first AMI.

The researchers found that, in relation to AMI risk, dyslipidemia and male sex enhanced the effect of one another. Among men, the proportion of AMI cases with dyslipidemia that could be attributed to this synergism alone was 0.46 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.35 to 0.57) for high total serum cholesterol, 0.23 (95 percent CI, 0.05 to 0.41) for low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and 0.52 (95 percent CI, 0.42 to 0.62) for high non-HDL cholesterol. The relative increased risk for AMI due to synergism of elevated total cholesterol and male sex was 3.92. For men and women, obesity and hypertension were similarly detrimental to AMI risk.

"Our results suggest that in middle age, dyslipidemia is much more detrimental for men than for women, and that preventing dyslipidemia has a greater potential to reduce the occurrence of AMI among men," the authors write. "In contrast, hypertension and obesity were equally detrimental for women as for men."

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