Nonfasting triglyceride levels associated with incident cardiovascular events but not fasting triglyceride levels
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In most subjects, the postprandial state represents the bulk of the nycthemere. Postprandial hypertriglyceridemia may directly contribute to atherogenesis. A total of 26,509 initially healthy US women from the Women’s Health Study were followed-up for a median of 11.4 years in order to determine the association of fasting and nonfasting triglyceride levels and the risk of future cardiovascular events, triglyceride levels being measured in blood samples at the time of enrollment. After adjusting for age, blood pressure, smoking, and the use of hormone replacement therapy in women, both fasting and nonfasting triglyceride levels predicted cardiovascular events. Among nonfasting participants, further adjustment for levels of total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and measures of insulin resistance maintained a strong independent association between triglyceride levels and cardiovascular events, the fully adjusted HRs for increasing tertiles of triglyceride levels being 1 (reference), 1.44 and 1.98 (P=0.006 for trend). In contrast, among fasting participants, the association between triglyceride levels and incident cardiovascular events was weakened, the fully adjusted HRs for increasing tertiles of triglyceride levels being 1 (reference), 1.21 and 1.09 (P=0.90 for trend). In conclusion, nonfasting triglyceride levels were associated with incident cardiovascular events, independently of traditional cardiac risk factors, whereas no such independent relationship was found for fasting triglyceride levels.
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