Investigation of risk factors of coronary artery stenosis in flying personnel

Objective To investigate the main risk factors induced to coronary artery stenosis in order to provide evidence for prevention of coronary heart disease in flying personnel. Methods By analyzing the computed tomography angiography (CTA), 44 flying personnel clinically suspected as coronary heart disease were divided into coronary artery stenosis group and normal coronary artery group. The comparisons on age, flying aircraft type, flying duties, body mass index (BMI), flying hours, night flying hours, blood lipid level, serum glucose level, histories of hypertension and smoking were conducted between two groups. The Logistic multivariate regression analysis was used for determining risk factors. Results The CTA results indicated 25 cases (56.82%) of coronary artery stenosis and 19 normal cases. The univariate analysis showed the statistical differences on age, flight hours, night flight hours, and the incidences of hypercholesterolemia, hyper low-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia, Hypo high-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia between coronary artery stenosis group and coronary artery normal group (χ2=4.429-14.329, P<0.05). The Logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that hyper low-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia (OR=7.026, 95%CI: 1.831-26.959, P<0.05) and night flight hours (OR=4.461, 95%CI: 1.694-11.746, P<0.05) were the independent risk factors of coronary artery stenosis. Conclusions Hyper low-density lipoprotein cholesterolemia and night flying hours are the independent risk factors of coronary artery stenosis in pilots. These hint that the change of circadian rhythms would be an important factor to induce coronary artery stenosis besides the common risk factors. Key words: Coronary artery stenosis; Circadian rhythm; Risk factors; Flying personnel