P6268Association between familial hypercholesterolemia and telomere length in US adults

Abstract

Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is characterized by acceler-ated development of atherosclerosis and represents the most frequent hereditary cause of premature coronary heart disease. Purpose: There is no study on the link between telomere length (TL)-index of biological age, and FH. Methods: We have evaluated the association between TL and FH, by applying on National Health and Education National Surveys (NHANES; 1999-2002) on indi-viduals which they had data on TL (measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction method) and FH (defined by Dutch Lipid Clinic [DLC] criteria). Sample weights taken into account for unequal probabilities of selection, nonresponse bias, and oversampling by complex sample analysis. Results: The overall adult US prevalence of total FH in NHANES participants was 0.43% (95% CI: 0.33-0.57). Probable FH (mean DLC score: 6.2) was esti-mated as affecting 0.42% (95% CI 0.32-0.48), whereas definite FH ((mean DLC score: 8.9) prevalence was much less common, affecting 0.03% (95% CI 0.02-0.06) US adults. Subjects with FH had more adverse charterers including lipid profile and prevalence of non-communicable diseases (hypertension, diabetes 2 type, obesity); further they had higher rate of early atherosclerotic cardiovascu-lar disease (2.9% in overall population vs. 39.6% in probable FH, and 46.8% in definite FH populations). The mean and standard error of mean for TL in the total population was 1.09±0.01 (T/S ratio) [definite FH= 1.08±0.01 vs. probable FH =1.09±0.01 T/S ratio]. Adjusted (age, sex, race, body mass index, C-reactive pro-tein) TL was shorter in FH subjects compared to health one (FH= 0.89±0.1 vs. healthy= 1.05±0.1 T/S ratio, p<0.001). Subjects with higher length of telomere had 12% less chance of FH compared with first quarter (Q1). Conclusions: Our findings shed light on the link between index of biological age, TL and a genetic disorder-FH. Our findings need to be confirmed in studies with larger FH cohorts.