Hyperhomocysteinemia increases the risk of vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysm among the male Han Chinese population: a retrospective case-control study

Abstract

Object

Vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms (VBDAs) are known to have a poor natural history with high rates of re-bleeding and mortality. There is a strong relation between hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) and cerebrovascular disease; we perform a retrospective study within the male of Chinese Han population to explore the association between HHcy and VBDAs.

Methods

Eighty-eight male patients with VBDA and Eighty-one male control subjects were evaluated for their serum total homocysteine levels. With multiple logistic regression analysis, the association between HHcy and the risk of VBDAs was estimated. Interaction and stratified analyses were conducted according to age, BMI, smoking status, drinking status, and chronic disease histories. The two-piecewise linear regression model examined the threshold effect.

Results

The multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed a significant association between HHcy and VBDAs (odds ratio (OR) = 2.62; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–6.71) after adjusting for classical vascular risk factors. The relationship was stable in all subgroup analysis. The interactive role was not found in the association between HHcy and VBDAs for the potential risk factor.

Conclusions

In summary, our study provides evidence that HHcy can increases the risk of VBDAs in the male Han Chinese population. Further researches with appropriate study designs including sex differences and aneurysm types are needed to verify this association.

Keywords:

• Vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms
• hyperhomocysteinemia
• homocysteine
• risk factors
• case-control study

Acknowledgments

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Bainan Xu, Ph.D. The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article. This study has been designed and conducted by Qun Wang and Kai Zhao. One of the authors (Jiashu Zhang) has significant statistical expertise. We would like to thank the patient advisers and others who were involved in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval and informed consent

See the ethic statement.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 82202103).