Background: Growing evidence suggests that remnant cholesterol (RC) contributes to residual atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. However, the cutoff points to treat RC for reducing ASCVD are still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between RC and combined cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in a general China cohort, with 11,956 subjects aged ≥ 35 years.
Methods: Baseline RC was estimated with the Friedewald formula for 8782 subjects. The outcome was the incidence of combined CVD, including fatal and nonfatal stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals. The restricted cubic spline (RCS) model was used to evaluate the dose-response relationship between continuous RC and the natural log of HRs.
Results: After a median follow-up of 4.66 years, 431 CVD events occurred. In the Cox proportional models, participants with a high level of categorial RC had a significantly higher risk for combined CVD (HR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.07-1.74) and CHD (HR: 1.63; 95% CI: 1.06-2.53), compared to those with a medium level of RC. In the stratification analyses, a high level of RC significantly increased combined CVD risk for subgroups females, age < 65 years, noncurrent smokers, noncurrent drinkers, normal weight, renal dysfunction, and no hyperuricemia. The same trends were found for CHD among subgroups males, age < 65 years, overweight, renal dysfunction, and no hyperuricemia; stroke among subgroup females. In RCS models, a significant linear association between RC and combined CVD and a nonlinear association between RC and CHD resulted. The risk of outcomes was relatively flat until 0.84 mmol/L of RC and increased rapidly afterwards, with an HR of 1.308 (1.102 to 1.553) for combined CVD and 1.411 (1.061 to 1.876) for CHD. Stratified analyses showed a significant nonlinear association between RC and CVD outcomes in the subgroup aged < 65 years or the diabetes subgroup.
Conclusions: In this large-scale and long-term follow-up cohort study, participants with higher RC levels had a significantly worse prognosis, especially for the subgroup aged 35-65 years or the diabetes mellitus subgroup.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease; diabetes mellitus; dyslipidemia; remnant cholesterol.