Non-High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels on the Risk of Asymptomatic Intracranial Arterial Stenosis: A Result from the APAC Study

Intracranial arterial stenosis (ICAS) is an important cause of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA), and the correlation between the plasma non-high density cholesterol (non-HDLC) levels and ICAS, especially asymptomatic ICAS (AICAS) is not clear. The Asymptomatic Polyvascular Abnormalities Community(APAC) study is a community-based, prospective, long-term follow-up observational study. 3387 participants were enrolled in this study. The diagnosis of AICAS was made by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography. The participants were then divided into 3 groups based on their non-HDLC levels. The cox regression was used to analyze the correlation between the non-HDLC level and the incidence of AICAS.9.98% of the participants were diagnosed with AICAS during 2 years following up. Multivariate analysis showed that non-HDL-C is an independent indicator for the incidence of AICAS (HR = 1.22, 95%CI: 1.06–1.40), The incidence of AICAS gradually increase with the increasing non-HDLC level. Compared with subgroup(non-HDLC < 3.4 mmol/l), incidence of AICAS was significantly higher in the subgroups(non-HDLC 3.4–4.1 mmol/l and non-HDLC ≥ 4.1 mmol/l) after adjustment for the confounding factors (HR = 1.32, 95%CI:1.02–1.73; HR = 1.46, 95%CI: 1.10–1.94, respectively). In conclusions, our findings suggest that elevated non-HDLC levels a significant risk factor for the development of AICAS in the APAC study.