Comparison of Fasting Plasma Glucose, Lipid Profile and Small Dense Low Density Lipoprotein in Severe Persistent Asthmatic and Non-Asthmatic Adults

Abstract

Background: The most effective and commonly used control therapy for asthma is oral or parenteral corticosteroids, which are quite effective. But at the same time, they are considered notorious for their side effects like contributing to increasing rates of related metabolic disorders for eg: obesity and type 2 diabetes. Studies of blood glucose and lipid profiles in relation to severe persistent asthma are still a few, and the results are ambiguous.

Objectives: The aim of current study was to evaluate the changes in Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG), Lipid profile (LP) and Small Dense Lipoprotein Cholesterol (Sd-LDL-C) in Severe Persistent Asthmatic (SPA) patients in comparison with non-asthmatic adults, and their correlations with absolute eosinophil count.

Methodology: This study was a cross sectional comparative research conducted at Medsol Clinical Lab, Blue Area, Islamabad. In this study, 40 pre-diagnosed SPA and 40 non-asthmatic adults were enrolled. Blood Absolute Eosinophil Count (AEC) was performed on haematology analyser (Mindray BC 50), FPG and Lipid Profile were measured by commercially available kits of spin react on Microlab 300, and Sd-LDL-C were measured by precipitating lipoproteins using heparin-MnCl₂ solution and measuring Sd-LDL-C from supernatant by spectrophotometric method in SPA and non-asthmatic adults. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20.2.

Results: Pair-wise comparison between SPA and non-asthmatic group was performed by two sample t-test. In SPA group, FPG (95 ± 8mg/dl), Triglycerides (162 ± 14mg/dl), LDL (97 ± 10mg/dl) and Sd-LDL-C (48 ± 4mg/dl) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than non-asthmatic adults, while HLD in SPA (38 ± 4.4mg/dl) was significantly lower than non-asthmatic adults (42 ± 3.9mg/dl). We also observed strong positive association of FPG (0.54), Triglycerides (0.38) LDL (0.23) and Sd-LDL-C (0.60) with AEC of SPA group and strong negative correlation for HDL (0.50) and AEC in SPA.

Conclusion: Dyslipidaemia, hyperglycaemia and elevated levels of Sd-LDL-C are associated complication of severe persistent asthma and high levels of Sd-LDL-C in severe persistent asthma are a potential risk factor to induce atherosclerosis.