Relationship between triglycerides and factor VIIc and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1: lack of threshold value.

Increased factor VIIc (FVIIc) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) levels may lead to a thrombotic state and subsequently to a higher risk of myocardial infarction. The relationships between triglycerides and plasma levels of both PAI-1 and FVIIc were established in previous studies. However, there is no data assessing whether there is a threshold value of triglycerides above which FVIIc and PAI-1 levels increase or whether the relationship is continuous. Therefore, we measured triglycerides, FVIIc, and PAI-1 levels in a large group of 1254 asymptomatic patients with hyperlipoproteinemia. Our results showed that both FVIIc and PAI-1 levels increase linearly in parallel to triglyceride levels (p=0.0001). In the multiple regression analysis, the relationship between log triglycerides and FVIIc was significantly independent of total cholesterol, body mass index, fasting glycemia, gender, and age; the relationship between log triglycerides and PAI-1 was significantly independent of body mass index, fasting glycemia, gender, and age. Interestingly, we found that the correlation coefficients between triglycerides and the haemostatic parameters measured were almost identical in different subgroups of subjects: males, females, nonobese, and normoglycemic, as well as nonalcoholic. We conclude that the relationships between triglyceride levels and FVIIc, as well as PAI-1, are continuous without threshold value of triglycerides.