A study published in Cardiovascular Diabetology explored the correlation between peripheral artery disease (PAD) high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-mediated cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).

“HDL-mediated CEC is found to be inversely associated with an increased risk of incident CHD. However, this association is not established in patients with PAD in the context of secondary prevention,” the researchers wrote.

In this study, researchers assessed 1,002 patients with CHD who were classified according to the presence or absence of PAD and type 2 diabetes status. CEC was quantified by incubation of cholesterol-loaded THP-1 cells.

According to the results, the presence of PAD determined low CEC in both patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and those without diabetes. The researchers observed that coexisting PAD and newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes provided an additive effect providing an impaired CEC compared with patients with PAD who did not have diabetes. Moreover, they noted that in patients with type 2 diabetes, the presence of PAD did not determine differences in CEC compared with those without PAD, which may be restored by glucose-lowering treatment.

“Our findings suggest an inverse relationship between CEC and PAD in [patients with] CHD. These results support the importance of identifying underlying mechanisms of PAD, in the context of secondary prevention, that provide potential therapeutic targets, that is the case of CEC, and establishing strategies to prevent or reduce the high risk of cardiovascular events of these patients,” the researchers concluded.

Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33766036/

Keywords: Cholesterol efflux capacity, Coronary heart disease, Peripheral artery disease, Secondary prevention, Type 2 diabetes mellitus