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

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 (VLDL-c) 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.

Keywords
Red wine; cardiac risk ratios; atherogenic lipid of plasma; atherogenic coefficient