Abnormalities in sex hormones are a risk factor for premature manifestation of coronary artery disease in South African Indian men.

The relation between sex hormone levels and myocardial infarction was studied in a case-control study among 117 Indian men with myocardial infarction aged 30-60 years and in 107 healthy Indian male controls. The patients and controls were further divided into subsets defined by age in decades. In the total patient population, testosterone concentration was significantly lower than in the controls (P less than 0.01), whilst oestradiol (P less than 0.0005) and the oestradiol to testosterone ratio (P less than 0.0005) were significantly higher. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analyses demonstrated that free testosterone index, the free oestradiol index, and the oestradiol to testosterone ratio were significantly associated with myocardial infarction, and that this association was independent of age, body mass index, smoking and serum lipids. Further analyses according to age subsets revealed that compared to respective control groups, patients in the 4th decade had both significant hypotestosteronaemia and hyperoestrogenaemia, whereas in patients of the 5th decade significant differences in total and in the calculated free oestradiol index were noted, and in the 6th decade a significant difference was detected only in the free oestradiol index. Hence, we conclude that aberrations in endogenous sex hormones are significantly associated with myocardial infarction, and that this association appears to be strongest in young men and diminishes with age, suggesting that these disturbances in sex hormones may be associated with premature manifestation of coronary artery disease.