Fatty acid percentage in erythrocyte membranes of atrial flutter/fibrillation patients and controls.
OBJECTIVE
Several epidemiological published data support the protective role of omega-3 consumption in coronary artery disease, sudden cardiac death and ventricular arrhythmias, but interestingly, this is not the case for atrial arrhythmias. The purpose of this study is to evaluate different fatty acid profile between AF/AFL subjects and healthy controls.


METHODS
Gas chromatography was employed to determine fatty acid percentage of erythrocyte membranes from 40 idiopathic AFL/AF patients and 53 healthy control subjects.


RESULTS
AFL/AF erythrocyte membranes had significantly lower percentage of saturated fatty acid (43.1 +/- SD2.2 versus 47.8 +/- SD9.6, p < 0.001), monounsaturated fatty acid (18.2 +/- SD2.5 versus 22.6 +/- SD5.2, p < 0.001) and total trans fatty acid (0.2 +/- SD0.1 vs 1.3 +/- SD1.1, p < 0.001) than controls. Furthermore, fatty acid (FA) profiles of arrhythmic individuals showed an increased percent of total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (36.7 +/- SD2.4 versus 26.4 +/- SD10.4, p < 0.001), PUFA n-3 (5.3 +/- SD1.1 versus 2.8 +/- SD1.8, p < 0.001) and n-6 (31.4 +/- SD2.2 versus 23.5 +/- SD9.9, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that the erythrocyte membranes FA composition of AF/AFL subjects differs from that of healthy controls.
Viviani Anselmi
Chiara
C
Istituto Ricovero Cura Carattere Scientifico Multimedica, Milan, Italy.
Ferreri
Carla
C
Novelli
Valeria
V
Roncarati
Roberta
R
Bronzini
Roberta
R
Marchese
Giovanni
G
Somalvico
Francesco
F
Condorelli
Gianluigi
G
Montenero
Annibale Sandro
AS
Puca
Annibale Alessandro
AA
D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001282:Atrial Flutter / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D005227:Fatty Acids