Background: Although direct and calculated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) has been widely used as an important predictor for cardiovascular risk, many studies have shown that apolipoprotein B (apo B) may be a more important lipoprotein marker.
Material and Method: We performed a cross-sectional study on 191 volunteers who were Shinawatra employees during their annual physical check up. The following cardiovascular risk factors were recorded or measured: direct and calculated LDL, apo B, gender, age, total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol (HDL), calculated LDL, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, smoking status, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio (WHR). Apo B, direct LDL and calculated LDL levels were tested for their associations with other potential cardiovascular risk factors.
Results: There were a total of 76 men and 115 women with an average age of 28.8 + 5.4 years. Male gender, cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, high triglyceride, high fasting plasma glucose, hypertension, high WHR and high BMI were associated with increased apo B level. Only male gender and high cholesterol were associated with increased calculated and direct LDL level. The association of direct and calculated LDLcholesterol level with cardiovascular risk factors appears to be similar.
Conclusion: We demonstrated that apo B level correlates more with other cardiovascular risk factors compared to direct and calculated LDL-cholesterol. The clinical relevance of this finding needs to be explored in large-scale studies.

Keywords: Apolipoprotein B, Low density lipoprotein, Cardiovascular risk factors