Association of Lipid Profile Ratios to Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension in an Indian Population

Objective: Two lipid ratios (i.e. triglyceride (TG)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)and HDL-C/total cholesterol (TC)) along with other lipid levels have been considered as importantmeasures of lipid profile and risk for developing coronary disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D). This paperinvestigated independent association between index of lipid measures with T2D and hypertension in astudy of Indian population.Methods: In this prospective study, 162 patients were selected and recorded their socio-economic andphysical characteristics. Each participant was evaluated for lipid levels i.e. TC, TG, HDL-C, low-densitylipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and examined for T2D and hypertension. Multiple logistic regressionwas conducted to find odd ratios (ORs) between lipid measures and ratios with T2D and hypertension.Measures of each lipid and ratio were stratified into quintiles of the distribution and ORs with 95% CIswere estimated for each quintile with lowest quintile as reference. Receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve was used to discriminate individuals with T2D or hypertension from individuals withoutT2D or hypertension.Results: Patients with T2D and hypertension had higher TG/HDL-C and lower HDL-C/TC(p-value<0.01). T2D and hypertension shared an independent positive correlation with TC, LDL-C,TG, HDL-C/TC and TG/HDL-C. Significant increasing trends in OR for T2D and hypertension wereseen in TG/HDL-C and TG (p-value<0.01). Comparing areas of ROC curves, TG/HDL-C played amore superior role in discriminating between participants with and without T2D, hypertension.Conclusions: TG/HDL-C is strongly associated with T2D and hypertension and is a superior predictorto other lipid measures as a risk marker in this population.