1. Folic acid and vitamin B12 are more effective than vitamin B6 in lowering fasting plasma homocysteine concentration in patients with coronary artery disease.
- Author
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Lee BJ, Huang MC, Chung LJ, Cheng CH, Lin KL, Su KH, and Huang YC
- Subjects
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Female, Folic Acid blood, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Middle Aged, Single-Blind Method, Treatment Outcome, Vitamin B 12 blood, Vitamin B 6 blood, Coronary Artery Disease blood, Folic Acid administration & dosage, Homocysteine blood, Vitamin B 12 administration & dosage, Vitamin B 6 administration & dosage
- Abstract
Objective: To investigate whether vitamin B(6) supplementation had a beneficial effect on lowering fasting plasma homocysteine concentrations in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients., Design: A single-blind intervention study., Setting: The study was performed at the Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the central part of Taiwan., Subjects: A total of 50 subjects were identified by cardiac catheterization to have at least 70% stenosis of one major coronary artery. In all, 42 patients successfully completed this study., Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to one of five groups and treated with a daily dose of placebo (n=8), 5 mg vitamin B(6) (n=8), 10 mg vitamin B(6) (n=8), 50 mg vitamin B(6) (n=9), or 5 mg folic acid combined with 0.25 mg vitamin B(12) (n=9) for 12 weeks., Main Outcome Measures: Nutrient intakes were recorded by using 24-h diet recalls when patients returned to the cardiology clinic before the intervention (week 0) and at week 12. Vitamin B(6) status was assessed by direct measures (plasma pyridoxal 5'-phosphate) and indirect measures (erythrocyte alanine and aspartate aminotransaminase activity coefficient). Fasting plasma homocysteine, serum folic acid, and vitamin B(12) were measured., Results: Fasting plasma homocysteine concentration did not respond to high or low doses of vitamin B(6) when compared with a placebo treatment after 12 weeks of supplementation. The mean fasting plasma homocysteine concentration, however, decreased significantly after 12 weeks of folic acid combined with vitamin B(12) supplementation (P=0.047). Further, within group, mean fasting plasma homocysteine concentration was nonsignificantly increased by 25.5, 16.2, and 18.3% in placebo, 10 mg/day and 50 mg/day vitamin B(6) supplemented groups, respectively; whereas folic acid combined with vitamin B(12) supplementation significantly reduced fasting plasma homocysteine concentration by 32% (P<0.001)., Conclusions: Our results indicate that vitamin B(6) supplementation alone is less effective than folic acid combined with vitamin B(12) in lowering plasma homocysteine concentrations in CAD patients., Sponsorship: This study was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China (NSC-91-2320-B-040-023).
- Published
- 2004
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