Evaluation of Serum Lipid Profile Level and Gamma-Glutamyltransferase Activity as a Biomarker for Coronary Artery Disease in Sudanese Patients

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a worldwide public health problem with high morbidity and mortality. There is evidence from recent studies that Gamma-glutamyltransferase (γ-GT) is likely to be associated with CAD. However, no studies to date investigated the association of γ-GT with CAD in Sudanese patients. This study aimed to assess the lipid profile level and γ-GT activity of Sudanese patients with CAD. A cross-sectional study was performed in which 60 clinically diagnosed patients with CAD and 60 apparently healthy (control group) were enrolled. Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations and γ-GT activity were measured. The commonest lipid abnormalities in the patients were; reduced TG (77% < 150 mg/dl) and HDL-C (68% ≤ 60 mg/dl) and increased TC, LDL-C and γ-GT in men and women (80% > 200 mg/dl, 72% > 130 mg/dl and > 22 U/l respectively). Statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) increases were present in the TC, TG, LDL-C and γ-GT concentrations between the case and the control group. However, the patients showed a statistically significant decrease in HDL-C concentration compared to the control group. These findings suggest that dyslipidemia is common among Sudanese patients with CAD and γ -GT could be used as a biomarker to CAD.