Relationship between hemostatic factors and known cardiovascular disease correlates in two suburban populations in Taiwan

The Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factor Two-Township Study is a longitudinal cardiovascular epidemiologic study of two suburban towns in Taiwan. Analyzing baseline data from 1,080 men and 1,510 women aged 18 and above, this paper focuses on the relationship of several hemostatic factors to CVD correlates: blood lipids, apolipoproteins, glucose, and uric acid, and blood pressure. Information on these relationships can shed light on whether hemostatic factors contribute to the pathogenesis of CVD independently or through known mechanisms. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. In the population studied, cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B had the strongest correlations with all hemostatic factors tested. Triglyceride was also strongly associated with factor VIIc. Factor VIIIc, factor VIIc, and fibrinogen, ordered by the strength of the correlation, were positively and significantly correlated with glucose, uric acid, and blood pressure levels. The associations of apolipoprotein B and cholesterol with fibrinogen (p = 0.14-0.20) were not as strong as those with factors VIIc (p = 0.28-0.37) and VIIIc (p = 0.15-0.30). Factors VIIc and VIIIc were independently associated with most clinical variables studied, including the levels of cholesterol components, triglyceride, glucose, uric acid, and diastolic blood pressure. These finding indicate that states of coagulating factors correlated, to varied degrees, with levels of blood lipid parameters, uric acid, and blood pressure in the population studied.