-Glutamyltransferase predicts cardiovascular death among Japanese women

The clinical importance of -glutamyltransferase (GGT) has recently been debated. Although some studies have suggested that the relaionship between GGT and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is independent of alcohol consumption, to our knowledge no studies have eported the relationship between GGT and CVD mortality in never-drinker subgroups. Since Japanese women are known to have a lower revalence of alcohol consumption, we examined whether GGT predicts CVD mortality in never-drinkers. We followed 2724 Japanese men and 122 Japanese women without prior CVD or liver dysfunction for 9.6 years and observed 83 and 82 CVD deaths, respectively. Current alcohol rinkers comprised 59% of men and 7% of women. Among women, the multiple adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for CVD mortality compared ith the reference group (GGT: 1–12 U/L) was 2.88 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14–7.28) for the elevated group (GGT≥ 50 U/L). This ositive relationship was unchanged in the never-drinkers subgroup (HR for log-transformed continuous GGT, 1.62 (95% CI, 1.11–2.37)). o significant relationships were observed in men. GGT displays a strong positive association with CVD mortality among Japanese women, or whom the prevalence of ever-drinkers is very low. Exploring the significance and biological mechanisms of GGT might provide useful nsights into CVD prevention. 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.