Evaluation of risk factors of atherosclerosis among employees of industrial enterprise
Laima Armonienė, Valerija Jablonskienė
Introduction. Cardiac and vascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis are the most frequent reason of sudden death among able-bodied population. Prevention of cardiac and vascular diseases is of utmost importance whereas most of the complicafions of these diseases may be avoided by changing the life-style and modifiable risk factors. People who work in large industrial enterprises are frequently exposed to and affected by noise, large amounts of information, hypody- namics, chronic psychoemotional stress. Such working environment may facilitate the development of atherosclerosis for those employees who are already exposed to and are influenced by other risk factors of atherosclerosis.
Background. The purpose and main obj ective of this work to investigate the spread of risk factors of atherosclerosis, extra-risks to gain cardiac and vascul ar diseases among the staff of industrial enterprise and to encourage the application of corrective measures to modifiable atherosclerosis risk factors through healthy life-style.
Material and Methods. During mandatory prophylactic medical examinations, studies were performed on 253 employees who have elevated arterial blood pressure or elevated body mass index and waist circumference. Chemistry analyzer REFLOTRON PLUS was used for blood chemistry tests of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triacylglycerols, and glucose concentration. LDL cholesterol level was calcui ated using the Friedewald formula. For those whose fasting glucose level in venous plasma was >6.11-<7.0 mmol/l, glucose tolerance test was performed. Arterial blood pressure, body mass index and characteristics of life-style have been also evaluated. Atherosclerosis risk factors have been compared for the groups of people with different arterial blood pressure, BMI and waist circumference, and correlations of atherosclerosis risk factors have been searched for and analyzed.
Results. High risk of atherosclerosis on the basis of tot al chol esterol level has been determined for 2% of the analyzed employees, medium - for 10%, and respectively marginal - for 43%. Normal level of total cholesterol was determined for 45% of examined employees. Impaired fasting glycemia was determined for 19% of the examined, impaired glucose tolerance - for 1%, and diabetes mellitus - for 2% of the examined employees.
No re li able differ ences of factors which reflect the circulation of lipids and glucose related to increasing blood pressure have been determined; waist circumference was reliably associated with the increase of the triacylglycerols level and decrease of HDL cholesterol. Systolic arterial pressure was stronger correlated with the analyzed risk factors of atherosclerosis than diastolic and average arterial blood pressure.
Coclusions. Most of the examined employees according to their lipid level had marginal risk of atherosclerosis. However, in each individual case the risk to acquire cardiac or vascular diseases must be evaluated taking into account other risk factors as well. Impaired fasting glycemia was a frequent health disorder among the employees of the examined group, therefore prophylactic tests of glucose level must be performed in the morning after 8-12 hours fasting. Rejection of addiction is of great import ance for the reduction of atherosclerosis risk in the environment of increased risk.
Keywords: atherosclerosis, risk factors, lipdis, glucose, blood pressure, body mass index.
