European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

An important mechanism responsible for increased cardiovascular risks in chronic excessive alcohol use is the pro-oxidant effects of alcohol. There are some emerging risk factors like: lipoprotein, High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), Lipid profile, Prothrombotic and pro-inflammatory factors that play an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. So we investigated the relation between the levels of cardiovascular biomarkers & the degree of alcohol intake in alcoholic subjects.
Materials and Methods: The present study was carried out in the Department of Psychiatry and in association with the Department of Biochemistry, Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital over a period of 6 months. 90 Alcoholic subjects, in the age group 18-60 years, randomly selected from the areas and ward, in and around were included in the study. Estimation of Serum Level of hs-CRP & Lp (a) by turbidimetric immunoassay. Serum Cholesterol by CHOD-POD & Triglycerides by enzymatic colorimetric method. LDL cholesterol was calculated by Friedwald equation.
Results: The mean serum Total cholesterol levels showed no significant association across different alcohol drinking groups. The mean TG & LDLc levels were significantly (p<0.05) higher   in   occasional (175.50 ± 62.22), (131.15 ± 12.26) drinkers and heavy drinkers (177.49 ± 21.53), (115.35 ± 16.30) than that of low-moderate (193.47 ± 24.15), (34.46 ± 2.49) & moderate (176.48 ± 21.56), (111.11 ± 14.27) drinkers respectively. In the occasional drinkers (35.23 ± 6.21) the mean serum HDL cholesterol levels were significantly elevated as compared to the low-moderate (34.46 ± 2.49), moderate drinkers (35.30 ± 5.44) and heavy drinkers (31.25 ± 5.02).
Conclusion: Our study suggests that heavy drinking may lead to significant dyslipidemia and inflammatory changes and adversely affect the cardiovascular system but has shown a beneficial effect of occasional drinking on HDLc levels and moderate drinking on hs-CRP levels. However a large scale study needs to be done to confirm these beneficial effects of occasional to moderate drinking on the cardiovascular system