Affiliations: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Ain
Shams University, Cairo, Egypt | Oncology Diagnostic Unit, Department of Biochemistry,
Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt
Note: [] Present Address: Faculty of Education, King Faisal University,
P.O. Box 1759, Al-Hassa 31982, Saudi Arabia
Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between
lipoprotein (a) levels and the development of atherosclerosis in chronic renal
failure (CRF) patients with the possible role of the liver. Serum Lp
(a) levels were measured in samples from 20 CRF patients on hemodialysis (HD),
20 liver cirrhosis (LC) patients, 20 patients having both CRF and LC and
undergoing HD, and 20 normal control subjects. Renal function (blood
urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine), hepatic function (transaminases (ALT and
AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin) investigations and serum
cholesterol were carried out for all the subjects enrolled in this
study. Serum Lp (a) concentration in CRF patients without LC was
87.25 ± 6.17 mg/dl, which was significantly higher than all
the investigated groups (P < 0.001). Lp(a)
concentration in patients with both CRF and LC was
24.65 ± 1.98 mg/dl, which was not significantly different from
the controls, but was significantly higher than that in the subjects with LC
only (P < 0.001) where the latter group had significantly low Lp
(a) values (11.1 ± 0.99) relative to all the other groups
(P < 0.001). Lp (a) correlated positively with
cholesterol in all groups except the LC subjects, but did not correlate with
age, or renal function in both CRF groups.
