A Correlation Study between Lipid Peroxidation and Dyslipidemia in Postmenopausal Women

In spite of having lower incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the reproductive age group, the incidence of CAD among postmenopausal females and age matched males are almost the same. This is due to alteration in the lipids and lipoproteins levels during postmenopausewhich contributes to development of CAD. Recent studies have shown that oxidative stress plays an important role in development of CAD. Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leads to increased lipid peroxidation resulting in dyslipidemia. Malondialdehyde (MDA), a marker of lipid peroxidation, is thought to play an important role in development of atherosclerosis. In this view, this case control study was undertaken to determine the MDA levels in the membrane of erythrocytes of postmenopausal women and to study the relationship between increased lipid peroxidation and degree of dyslipidemia. Fasting lipid profile, erythrocyte MDA levels were determined in 50 women in late reproductive phase and 50 postmenopausal females. Statistical analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 version (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). This study showed that the MDA levels were significantly increased in postmenopausal women (p <0.01). This increase showed a significant strong positive correlation with increasing TC/HDL ratio(r = 0.653, p <0.05). Therefore, increase oxidative stress during menopause may contributes to the development of cardiovascular complications. Therefore, measuring the MDA level during the postmenopausal phase would help to early diagnosis and prevention of life threatening complication.