The relationship between sex hormone levels and subclinical coronary artery calcification in non-obese Korean men

Abstract

Background: Although low testosterone levels in men have been associated with high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), little is known about the association between male sex hormones and subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. This study was performed to investigate associations between male sex hormones and subclinical coronary artery calcification measured as coronary calcium score (CCS) in non-obese Korean men.Methods: We examined the relationship of total testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), bioavailable testosterone (BT), free testosterone (FT) and free testosterone index (FTI) with CCS in 291 non-obese Korean men (mean age, 52.8 ± 9.3 years) not having a history of CVD. Using multiple linear regression, we evaluated associations between log(sex hormone) levels and log(CCS) after adjusting for confounding variables. Results: In multiple linear regression analysis, BT and FTI were inversely associated with CCS (p=0.046 and p=0.018, respectively) after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, regular exercise, mean blood pressure, resting heart rate, C-reactive protein, fasting plasma glucose, albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol, whereas total testosterone, SHBG and FT were not (p=0.674, p=0.121 and p=0.102, respectively).Conclusions: Our findings indicate that BT and FTI are inversely associated with subclinical coronary artery calcification in non-obese men. Accordingly, early detection of decreased BT and FTI is important in the assessment of potential cardiovascular risk and could be an initiative for CVD prevention and vascular health management.