Use of atherogenic index of plasma in evaluating the potential cardioprotective effects of red wine consumption: Studies in Nigerian young adult volunteers.

Abstract

There is increased interest in the biomedical basis of the “French paradox”− the epidemiological
phenomenon linking co-existence of cardiovascular risk factors with moderate consumption of red wine. This study
examines the predictive values and development or otherwise of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events by using
the values of atherogenic lipid of plasma (AIP), cardiac risk ratios (CRR) and atherogenic coefficient (AC) to test the
hypothesis of cardio-protection of red wine consumption in young adult volunteers. It has been suggested that these
indices are better than the conventional lipid profile parameters in the assessment of cardioprotective activity of
acute red wine ingestion. Five ml of fasting blood was collected from each participant before they were given 300 ml
of 11.5% v/v alcoholic red wine to drink within 5 minutes. One hour after ingestion of the wine, further 5 ml blood
samples were collected. The plasma levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein
cholesterol (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDLc)
were determined, after which CRR, AC and AIP were calculated. The results show that red wine consumption
induced increase in the levels of TG (p<0.05), HDL-c (p<0.001) and VLDL-c (p>0.05), but a decrease in the levels of TC
and LDL-c (p<0.001). This study shows that all lipoprotein-related indices of atherogenicity (with the exception of
HDL-c/LDL-c ratio) were significantly reduced (p<0.001) one hour after red wine ingestion in Nigerian blacks.
However, the predictive value of this finding for cardiovascular events remained to be demonstrated.