Relationship between serum estrogen levels and blood stasis syndrome in postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease

OBJECTIVES To investigate the difference of serum estrogen, serum lipids and inflammatory factors levels in postmenopausal women with coronary heart blood stasis syndrome and non-blood stasis syndrome. METHODS Twenty five healthy postmenopausal women were selected as a healthy control group who were compared with 43 postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease (CHD) first visiting a doctor for the CHD. Among the postmenopausal women with CHD, There were 23 patients with blood stasis syndrome (BSS) and 20 patients with non-blood stasis syndrome (NBSS). The levels of plasma triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) were determined in blood samples taken after patients' admission in Beijing Anzhen Hospital. The serum estradiol(E2) was measured by electrochemiluminescence assay and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1(sICAM-1) was measured by enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS Compared with the healthy control group, the levels of TG and TC, sICAM-1 in coronary heart disease group were all significantly increased (P<0.05),but serum E2 were significantly decreased (P<0.05). The levels of E2 of patients with blood stasis syndrome (BSS) were decreased further (P>0.05), and there was an increasing trend of serum sICAM-1 levels (P>0.05). There were negative significant correlations between serum E2 levels and TC, sICAM-1 levels in patient with coronary heart disease. CONCLUSION The estrogen level of menopausal women with coronary heart disease is lower than healthy menopausal women. With the low estrogen levels, postmenopausal women tend to have high levels of blood lipids and sICAM-1, which elucidates that the estrogen could regulate lipids and attenuate inflammatory response to play a protective role on blood vessels.