Possible Link Between a Low Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease and Mild Dyslipidaemia: a Study in Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

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Abstract
In 98 Japanese patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C), free fatty acid (FFA), and apolipoproteins (apo) A‐I, A‐II, B, C‐II, C‐III, and E were determined. The data were compared with those in 47 normolipidaemic normal controls. The total cholesterol value of the diabetic patients was also compared to that of a general population (n = 2227). The diabetic patients were separated into those with cardiovascular disease (n = 20) and without it (n = 78) and a comparison of clinical characteristics and dyslipidaemia was also performed. The diabetic patients had slightly but significantly higher FFA, LDL‐C, apo B, C‐II, C‐III, E, and B/A‐I, and lower apo A‐I and A‐II compared to the normal controls. The total cholesterol level of the diabetic patients (5.17 ± 0.96 mmol−1) was not significantly higher than that of the general population (5.12 ± 0.91 mmol−1). By multivariate stepwise discriminant analyses, only total cholesterol significantly discriminated the patients with and without cardiovascular disease. In Japanese patients with Type 2 diabetes, a diabetic population with a very low prevalence of cardiovascular disease, high total cholesterol ís a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, a markedly low prevalence of cardiovascular disease in Japanese with Type 2 diabetes compared to Caucasian counterparts may partly be due to the mildness of dyslipidaemia.