The complex role of triglycerides in cardiovascular disease.

The objectives of the present work were to obtain a summary estimate of the magnitude of association between triglycerides and cardiovascular disease in the general population based on currently available data. Our goal was to determine whether this relationship is independent of other risk factors, particularly high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), using semi-quantitative meta-analysis. We only included studies reporting the association between fasting triglyceride levels and incident cardiovascular disease endpoints. Twenty-one studies including 65,863 men and 11,089 women were selected for the analysis from population-based prospective studies using standard meta-analysis calculations, relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Multivariable adjusted RRs were determined only for the studies reporting adjustment for HDL-C (9 studies in men, 2 studies in women). These analyses indicate plasma triglycerides are an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease.