Premature graying, baldness may relate to CAD risk in young Asian men

Premature hair graying and androgenic alopecia, commonly referred to as male pattern baldness, was linked to a fivefold increase for CAD risk among Asian men, according to new data presented at the Annual Conference of the Cardiological Society of India.

“The incidence of CAD in young men is increasing but cannot be explained by traditional risk factors,” Sachin Patil, MD, a third-year resident at the U.N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Center in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, said in a press release. “Premature greying and androgenic alopecia correlate well with vascular age irrespective of chronological age and are plausible risk factors for coronary artery disease.”

To investigate the relationship between premature graying, androgenic alopecia and CAD, the researchers enrolled men younger than 40 years from a super-specialty cardiac care center in western India, 790 of whom had had established CAD and 1,270 of whom were healthy with no history of any major illness.

Researchers used univariate and multivariate analyses to assess the strength of association of premature graying and androgenic alopecia with CAD.

It was found that hypertension, obesity and lipid abnormality occurrences were higher in patients with CAD vs. controls.

Patients with CAD had a significantly higher prevalence of premature graying compared with the control group (49.6% vs. 29.9%).

By performing a linear regression analysis, researchers found an association between androgenic alopecia/premature graying and CV risk factors (P < .05).

A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that androgenic alopecia (HR = 5.619; 95% CI, 4.025-7.845) was the strongest predictor of CAD among young Asian men, followed by premature graying (HR = 5.267; 95% CI, 3.716-7.466) and obesity (HR = 4.113; 95% CI, 2.839-6.018).

“It is an established fact that premature CAD is becoming more common in India with each passing day. We do not know the exact reasons behind this,” K. Sarat Chandra, MD, DM, professor of cardiology at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, and president-elect of the Cardiological Society of India, said in the release. “The present study suggesting that premature greying and male-pattern baldness could be important risk factors goes a long way in our understanding of this riddle.” – by Dave Quaile

Reference:

Patil S, et al. Premature greying and androgenic alopecia as independent predictors of underlying coronary artery disease in young Asian males. Presented at: Annual Conference of Cardiological Society of India; Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2017; Kolkata, India.

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