Traditional and Non-traditional Lipid Profiles in Bosnian Patients with Probable Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia

BACKGROUND: Conflicting data exist on traditional lipid profiles in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), whereas scarce number of studies evaluated non-traditional lipid profiles in patients with AD and VD. Studies have shown that ethnic background may affect lipid profile. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to conduct comparative assessment of traditional and non-traditional lipid profiles in Bosnian patients with AD and VD. METHODS: A controlled, cross-sectional study was performed with 66 patients with AD, 50 patients with VD, and 60 control subjects. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was used for an evaluation of the global cognitive function. The Hachinski ischemic score was used to distinguish patients with VD from those with AD. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein -cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) levels were determined using standard enzymatic colorimetric techniques, whereas the Friedewald formula was used to calculate low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. The non-traditional lipid indices such as TG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio were separately calculated. The differences between the groups were analyzed with ANOVA followed by the Tuckey posthoc test or with the Kruskal Wallis test followed by the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: Results of the present study have shown that patients in AD group had significantly lower level of TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C, Non-HDL-C and significantly lower atherogenic index compared to the control group (CG) and compared to the VD patients. Significant difference in values of TG and VLDL-C was observed between VD and the CG, whereas no significant difference in values of TC, LDL-C, atherogenic index and Non-HDL-C was observed between these two groups. Our results have also shown that TG/HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratios were significantly lower in AD patients compared to the VD and CG. Moreover, TG/HDL-C ratio was significantly lower in VD compared to the CG. However, a significant difference in TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C was not observed between VD and the CG. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the present study it can be deduced that there is a difference in traditional and non-traditional lipid profiles between AD and VD patients of Bosnian descent. Obtained results suggest that lipids are decreased in AD and in VD to a certain extent. However, since there is an inconsistence in literature whether there is an association between cholesterol and cognition, large prospective studies are required to elucidate this controversy.