BACKGROUND

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are at a lower risk of suffering cardiovascular events, but the underlying factors for this decreased risk remain unclear. Serum triglycerides (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), and their expression relative to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C and TC/HDL-C), are independent predictors of cardiovascular events. This study aimed to determine if PD patients have decreased lipid levels and lipid ratios, which may underlie the decreased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

METHODS

This retrospective study included 92 PD patients (PD group), 450 control subjects with no CHD (OD group), and 450 CHD patients (CHD group). We analyzed serum lipid levels and lipid ratios in each group.

RESULTS

There were significant differences in TC (F = 10.459, p < 0.0001), TG (F = 46.856, p < 0.0001), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (F = 6.910, p = 0.001), high density lipoprotein cholesterol HDL-C (F = 30.694, p < 0.0001), TC/HDL-C (F = 32.675, p < 0.0001), and TG/HDL-C (F = 45.554, p < 0.0001) between all three groups; TC/LDL-C (F = 2.518, p = 0.081) was not significantly different between groups. Compared to the CHD group, PD patients had lower TC (p < 0.0001), TG (p < 0.0001), LDL-C (p = 0.001), TG/HDL-C (p < 0.0001), and TC/HDL-C (p < 0.0001); TC/LDL-C (p = 0.563) and HDL-C (p = 0.196) were not significantly different. TC and LDL-C levels were positively correlated within individual groups (all p < 0.0001). In addition, TG and HDL-C were negatively correlated in the OD and CHD groups (p < 0.0001); no significant negative association was observed in the PD group (p = 0.077). TG/HDL and LDL-C levels were inversely correlated in the CHD group (p < 0.0001) and weakly positively correlated in the PD (p = 0.159) and OD (p = 0.199) groups.

CONCLUSIONS

TC/HDL and TG/HDL ratios were significantly lower in PD patients compared to CHD patients, suggesting there is a strong correlation between lipid ratios and incidence of CHD in PD patients.