Cardiovascular risk and metabolic profile of Polish citizens from Lower Silesia. First signs of metabolic crisis?

Introduction:

Population biobanks are essential for the development of public health screening and improvement of personalized medicine. Since 2012, Biobank of Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development (PORT Biobank) has collected more than 120 000 biological samples from nearly 5000 inhabitants of Lower Silesia, together with a variety of demographic, anthropometric, life style and health information.

Material and methods:

The analyzed group consisted of 2274 participants (1398 women, 876 men). Both women and men were further subdivided into five age decades (20+, 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+). For this study, the level of lipids (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL], low-density lipoprotein [LDL], triglycerides) was estimated and correlated with the level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and biometric parameters.

Results:

We have demonstrated for the first time that biochemical changes that may lead to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) occurred already in the group of people aged 30+. Our observation is based on measurements of lipids, glucose, inflammatory (hs-CRP) and biometric markers such as body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).

Conclusions:

Positive correlations with age for these variables suggest the ongoing progress of metabolic changes, which in the end may lead to a fatal outcome such as myocardial infarction or stroke. It suggests that CVD screening programs should be dedicated to a wider group, especially younger citizens, in order to prevent fatal outcomes related to CVD.