Abstract

Background: The association between fasting triglyceride (TG) and the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) remains elusive. The objectives of the present studywere to analyze the magnitude of the association between TG and MACE in the Taiwanese Secondary Prevention for Patients with AtheRosCLErotic Disease (T- SPARCLE) registry.

Methods: Two-year follow-up data from a nationwide cohort study of 6050 patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (aged 68 years, 71% men) were used to identify risk factors for the occurrence of MACE, defined as cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), and non-fatal stroke. 196 cases of MACE occurred during the follow up. The Cox proportional hazard model was applied to detect the independent risk factors for MACE. Adjustment was made for variables including age, sex, history of stroke, heart failure, MI/coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, lipid-lowering agents except statin, statin, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Results: Compared with TG (91–150) mg/dL, multivariate-adjusted HRs for MACE ranged from 1.47 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02–2.13) for TG of ≤ 90 mg/dL, 1.13 (95% CI: 0.73–1.76) for TG of 151–200 mg/dL, 1.27 (95% CI: 0.71–2.29) for TG 201–250 mg/dL to 1.65 (95% CI: 0.99–2.77) for TG ≥ 251 mg/dL.

Conclusions: The common belief that low TG are beneficial for health is not universally observed. By using the long-term follow-up data of T-SPARCLE registry, we provided evidence that increased CV events at both ends of the TG distributions.