Associations between serum cholinesterase and incident hyper-LDL cholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL cholesterolemia as well as changes in lipid levels in a health screening population.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate longitudinal associations between serum cholinesterase (ChE) and lipid status.

METHODS

Hazard ratios (HRs) of incident hyper-LDL cholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL cholesterolemia for baseline ChE and correlation coefficients between baseline ChE and changes in LDL cholesterol, log triglycerides and HDL cholesterol during 5 years were calculated in a health screening population.

RESULTS

During the 5-year follow-up period, 337 men (22.9%) and 208 women (26.3%), 330 men (24.3%) and 114 women (12.4%) and 137 men (8.3%) and 117 women (12.7%) developed hyper-LDL cholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL cholesterolemia, respectively. The HRs of incident hyper-LDL cholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL cholesterolemia for each 1 SD increase in baseline ChE were 1.15 (p = 0.009) in men and 1.17 (p = 0.017) in women, 1.25 (p < 0.001) in men and 1.37 (p < 0.001) in women and 1.15 (p = 0.113) in men and 1.12 (p = 0.248) in women, respectively adjusted for BMI and other confounders, while the HRs were not significant after further adjusted for each baseline lipid level except for the HR of hypertriglyceridemia in women (HR, 1.22 (p = 0.047)). The baseline ChE was inversely correlated with the changes in LDL cholesterol (r = -0.117, p < 0.001) and log triglycerides (r = -0.114, p < 0.001) in men and the change in LDL cholesterol (r = -0.191, p < 0.001) in women.

CONCLUSION

ChE was positively associated with incident hyper-LDL cholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia adjusted for BMI, while with only incident hypertriglyceridemia in women after further adjusted for the baseline lipid level.