BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases are an important public health problem. Adaptive and protective responses of the vascular system against oxidative stress are important in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Bilirubin has been considered an antioxidant, with the capacity to remove reactive species of oxygen. Previous studies have demonstrated that increased serum bilirubin concentrations promote protection against atherosclerosis. PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between the atherosclerotic burden and the bilirubin concentration of patients with coronary artery disease. METHOD: Transversal study composed of 81 patients with established angiographic diagnosis of coronary artery disease, submitted to myocardial revascularization. Classical risk factors and bilirubin levels were assessed. The chi-square, the t Student test or the Mann-Whitney test were used with p value significant at < 0.05. RESULTS: The sample was composed predominantly of men, with a mean age of 59.32 ± 9.28 years in the minimum/moderate atherosclerotic burden group and 61.79 ± 7.55 years in the severe burden group. The median of total bilirubin in the minimum/moderate atherosclerosis burden group was 0.34 mg/dL and 0.43 mg/dL in the severe burden group. Differently than expected, the concentration of total bilirubin was higher in the group with severe atherosclerotic burden than in the group with minimum/moderate burden, although without statistical significance (p = 0.241). CONCLUSION: Serum bilirubin levels were not useful in the detection or prediction of the severity of atherosclerotic lesions in patients with coronary artery disease.
Bilirubin; Atherosclerosis; Coronary artery disease
