Determining the Relationship between Triglycerides and Arterial Stiffness in Cardiovascular Risk Patients Without Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol-Lowering Therapy

Data examining the relationship between arterial stiffness and triglyceride (TG) and other cardiovascular risk factors have remained to be sparse. Of the 5,109 patients with any cardiovascular risk factors in the Cardiovascular Prognostic Coupling Study in Japan (the Coupling Registry), the data of 1,534 patients who had no history of cardiovascular disease and were without low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)-lowering therapy (average age 67.9 +/- 12.0 years, 55% males) were analyzed. Arterial stiffness was evaluated using the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). Among the clinical and behavioral cardiovascular risk factors, the significant factors that constituted the CAVI value were smoking. diabetes, lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and higher TG. After adjustment for age. sex, and body mass index (BMI), only TG (odds ratio [OR] per 1 standard deviation, 1.26 [95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.44]) and diabetes (OR, 1.52 [1.22-1.90]) were found to be associated with a risk of higher CAVI (>= 9.0). TG (C-statistic, 0.80 [0.78-0.82]; P = 0.040) and diabetes (C-statistic, 0.80 [0.78-0.82]; P = 0.038) significantly improved the discrimination of the risk of a higher CAVI beyond the model that included age, sex, and BMI. TG was associated with a risk of arterial stiffness, and its contribution was slight but almost the same as that of diabetes among patients who had cardiovascular risk without a history of cardiovascular disease and LDL-C-lowering therapy.