Prevalence of dyslipidemia in the Iraqi adult population.

OBJECTIVE To establish the prevalence of dyslipidemia in the Iraqi adult population in Mosul, Iraq, according to the different recommended criteria. METHODS The study was carried out from October 2003 to April 2004, with 871 apparently healthy volunteers (413 males, 458 females) aged 20-70 year ([mean +/- SD] 41.2 +/- 13.8 year). Fasting blood specimens were collected from all subjects for measurement of serum lipid profile including triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and ratios of cholesterol such as TC:HDL-C, LDL-C:HDL-C, and TG:HDL-C. Classification was carried out according to the different cut-off levels as recommended by the 2001 American National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) III using thresholds of TG > or = 150 mg/dl (2.0 mmol/L), LDL-C > or = 100 mg/dl (2.6 mmol/L), HDL-C<40 mg/dl (1.04 mmol/L), and non-HDL-C> or 130 mg/dl (3.37 mmol/L). The criteria of the 1998 British Hyperlipidemia Association (BHA) were also followed using thresholds of TG > or =180 mg/dl (2.4 mmol/L), TC > or 194 mg/dl (5.0 mmol/L), LDL-C > or = 116 mg/dl (3.0 mmol/L), HDL-C< or =45 mg/dl (1.15 mmol/L), TC:HDL-C> or =5.0, HDL-C:DL-C> or =2.5, and TG:HDL-C> or =3.0. RESULTS Based on the American NCEP III criteria, the dyslipidemic states were noted with high TG (41.6%), high LDL-C (57.8%), low HDL-C (49.9%), and high non-HDL-C (56.8%) from the subjects. Based on the BHA criteria, high TG (24.5%), high TC (32.7%), high LDL-C (37.8%), high TC:HDL-C (30.9%), high LDL-C HDL-C (55.7%), and high TG:HDL-C (58.3%) were noted. CONCLUSION Dyslipidemia is common in the Iraqi population, and this was identified at different recommendation criteria.