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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2006;26:e31.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letter to the Editor

Oxidized LDL and the Metabolic Syndrome

Paul Holvoet

Atherosclerosis and Metabolism Unit, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Tamara B. Harris

Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md

Russell P. Tracy

Departments of Pathology and Biochemistry, University of Vermont, Burlington

Stephen B. Kritchevsky

J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

We would like to comment on the data published by Per Sjogren and colleagues in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.¹ They showed that levels of circulating oxidized LDL were not elevated in otherwise healthy men with the metabolic syndrome. Their data are in contrast with the previous findings of the Hulthe group² and with our data from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study, a cohort of well-functioning older adults.³ Although the authors did not refer to our previous publication, we would like to comment on the differences between the Stockholm County and the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study.

In both studies the metabolic syndrome was defined according to the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education (ATPIII). Thus, the contrasting data cannot be attributable to differences in definition. In Health ABC, black and white men and women, age 70 to 79 years, were studied. In the Stockholm County cohort, only white men, age 62 to 64 years, were studied. The association between the metabolic syndrome and a higher prevalence of elevated levels of circulating oxidized LDL in the Health ABC cohort was independent of age, gender, and ethnicity. Although the Health ABC cohort was older, with a restricted age range, this suggests that the contrasting data are not likely to be attributable to differences in age, gender, and ethnicity.

The Health ABC cohort appeared to be representative of the U.S. population. The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome as defined by ATP III (3 or . . . [Full Text of this Article]