Relationship between serum sex hormones and coronary artery disease in postmenopausal women

Abstract

Although sex hormones appear to be importantly involved in the development of coronary heart disease, apparently no study has yet reported an alteration in an endogenous sex hormone level in relation to coronary heart disease in women. In an attempt to determine whether any sex hormone abnormality might be a factor n the development of myocardial infarction in women, estradiol and testosterone, as well as sex hormone-binding globulin, insulin, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and risk factors for myocardial infarction, were measured in relation to the degree of coronary artery disease (CAD) in 60 postmenopausal women undergoing coronary angiography. In a multiple-regression analysis with the degree of CAD as the dependent variable and free testosterone (FT), estradiol, age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, and insulin as independent variables in the model, only FT (P