Abstract
The aim of the study was to assess the separate influences of plasma lipoproteins and fibrinogen on plasma viscosity (PV), minimizing/controlling for the effect of confounders by patient selection and by data analysis. In 30 normal male volunteers, nonsmokers, and 90 male, nonobese nonsmokers with various types of primary hyper lipoproteinemias, but otherwise healthy, the plasma levels of total cholesterol (Chol), the low density cholesterol (LDL) , the high density cholesterol (HDL) , triglyceride. (Tg) and fibrinogen (Fib) were measured in conjunction with determinations of plasma viscosity (PV). By the stepwise regression variable selection 60% of variation in PV was explained by equating PV as: PV(mPa·s) = 1.352 + 0.0167·Chol(mmol/L) + 0.0285·Fib(g/L) + 0.0054·Tg(mmoljL) + 0.00318·Hematocrit(%) - 0.030·HDL(mmol/L), R=0.774. Expressed in standardized residuals the effect of Chol was about 3 times greater compared to Fib and Tg. Thus, in the studied sample the leading influence of cholesterol on plasma viscosity was observed, whereas hematocrit and HDL exerted independent positive and negative associations with plasma viscosity, respectively.
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