title: Fatty acid percentage in erythrocyte membranes of atrial flutter/fibrillation patients and controls.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Ricovero Cura Carattere Scientifico Multimedica, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viviani Anselmi
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferreri
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Novelli
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roncarati
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bronzini
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marchese
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Somalvico
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Condorelli
authors.forename: Annibale Sandro
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Montenero
authors.forename: Annibale Alessandro
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Puca
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids