Original investigation
Estimation of plasma apolipoprotein B concentration using routinely measured lipid biochemical tests in apparently healthy Asian adults
- † Equal contributors
1 Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, #108, Pyung Dong, Seoul, Jongro-Ku, 110-746, Republic of Korea
2 Biostatistics Team, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea
3 Nutrition and Metabolism Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, IDS Building, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, MP, 887, UK
4 Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Cardiovascular Diabetology 2012, 11:55 doi:10.1186/1475-2840-11-55
Published: 18 May 2012Abstract
Background
Increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) concentration is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) but a substantial risk of cardiovascular disease often remains after LDL concentrations have been treated to target. Apolipoprotein B (apo B) is the major apolipoprotein contained within atherogenic lipoproteins such as LDL, and apo B is a more reliable indicator of cardiovascular risk than LDL concentration.
Aim and methods
Our aim was to develop a formula for calculating apo B using lipid biochemistry measurements that are commonly available in clinical practice. We examined the clinical and laboratory data from 73,047 Koreans who underwent a medical health check that included apolipoprotein B concentration. The study sample was randomly divided into a training set for prediction model building and a validation set of equal size. Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to develop a prediction model equation for estimating apo B and to validate the developed model.
Results
The best results for estimating apo B were derived from an equation utilising LDL and triglyceride (TG) concentrations [ApoB = −33.12 + 0.675*LDL + 11.95*ln(tg)]. This equation predicted the apo B result with a concordance correlation coefficient (CCC and 95%CIs) = 0.936 (0.935,0.937)).
Conclusion
Our equation for predicting apo B concentrations from routine analytical lipid biochemistry provides a simple method for obtaining precise information about an important cardiovascular risk marker.
