ApoB/apoA1 is an effective predictor of coronary heart disease risk in overweight and obesity

We investigated the relationship of apoB/apoA1 ratio and coronary heart disease (CHD) in persons who were overweight or obese. The subjects were divided by the body mass indexes (BMI) into the normal weight group (n=397, BMI<24 kg/m2) and the overweight group (n=400, BMI>24 kg/m2). Our results showed that the over-weight group had higher blood pressure (130.15±19.01) mmHg vs (123.66±18.70) mmHg and higher levels of blood sugar (7.09±2.89) mmol/L vs (6.21±2.59) mmol/L, triglyceride (1.93±1.19) mmol/L vs (1.44±0.85) mmol/L, total cholesterol (4.26±1.06) mmol/L vs (4.09±0.99) mmol/L, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (2.56±0.75) mmol/L vs (2.39±0.72) mmol/L, and apoB (0.83±0.27) mg/L vs (0.78±0.23) mg/L, and a higher apoB/apoA1 ratio (0.83±0.27 vs 0.75±0.25) and lower levels high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.10±0.26) mmol/L vs (1.21±0.31) mmol/L and apoA1 (1.04±0.20) mg/L vs (1.08±0.22) mg/L than those of the normal weight group (all P < 0.05). The prevalence of CHD in the over-weight group in the lowest LDL quar-tile was almost twice greater than that of the highest apoB/apoA1 quartile, compared with the subjects in the low-est apoB/apoA1 quartile. The higher apoB/apoA1 quartile was in agreement with the higher prevalence of CHD. In the overweight and obesity group, the area under ROC curve (AUC) was the highest for apoB/apoA1 (0.655). The cut-off point of apoB/apoA1 for optimal sensitivity and specificity was at 0.80, with a sensitivity of 57.19% and a specificity of 71.72%. In conclusion, apoB and apoA1 were simple clinical indicators, and the apoB/apoA1 ratio was closely related with CHD in overweight and obese patients. The apoB/apoA1 ratio may provide some useful information in the differential diagnosis.