Increased level of apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 ratio as a potential risk for osteonecrosis
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, 3–1–1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812–8582, Japan
- Dr T Yamamoto.
- Accepted 6 April 1999
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study was performed to investigate whether a high ratio of apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1 (apo B/apo A1 ratio) is significantly associated with the risk of developing non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ON).
METHODS Fifty consecutive non-traumatic ON cases were compared with 50 age and sex matched controls, using both univariate and stepwise discriminant analyses, regarding the factors of corticosteroid, alcohol, cigarettes, cholesterol, triglyceride, and apo B/apo A1 ratio. To eliminate the possibility that ON or osteoarthritic change itself can increase the apo B/apo A1 ratio, a further 32 consecutive cases comprising nine traumatic ON and 23 osteoarthritis (OA) patients were analysed using Scheffe’s test.
RESULTS There was a significant association between a high apo B/apo A1 ratio and the development of non-traumatic ON with both univariate (p=0.0001) and stepwise discriminant analyses (partialr 2=0.1239, p=0.0004). The apo B/apo A1 ratio in the non-traumatic ON group was significantly higher than that in the traumatic ON (p<0.01), control (p<0.001), or the OA groups (p<0.001).
CONCLUSION A high apo B/apo A1 ratio is significantly associated with the risk of developing ON. This ratio may be useful for assessing the potential risk of developing osteonecrosis.
Footnotes
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Funding: this study was supported by a Grant for Research on Eye and Ear Sciences, Immunology, Allergy and Organ Transplantation from the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan and by the Hip Joint Foundation of Japan, Inc.
