The effect of hormone therapy on serum ischemia modified albumin levels in surgical menopausal women

Women suffer from cardiovascular diseases 10 years later than men, therefore female sex has been considered as a `protective factor?. However, the risk of cardiovascular disease in women increases rapidly after menopause and the declining levels of endogenous estrogen is thought to be the causative factor. Furthermore, Postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) decreases the severity and intensity of menopausal symptoms and improves women?s quality of life. Until the last 10 years, based on the results of observational studies, postmenopausal HT may protect women against cardiovascular events and decrease the risk of coronary artery disease by 35-50%. However, recent randomized primary and secondary prevention trials did not support the cardioprotective effect of HT.The aim of this study is to assess the effect of hormone therapy on serum ischemia modified albumin (IMA) levels. Thirty surgical menopausal women who admitted to Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology during 1 year period and diagnosed as menopause and planned to have hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms were enrolled for this prospective study. The serum İMA levels were recorded before and after (3 months, 6 months, 12 months later) hormone treatment (2 mg Estradiol Hemihidrat). The mean age of women was 47.60 ± 2.34 years. The mean serum IMA levels were 0.610 ± 0.096 ABSU at beginning and 0.484 ± 0.080 ABSU after 3 months hormone therapy. Following 6 months of hormone therapy, serum IMA levels was, and reached to 0,580 ± 0,089 ABSU serum level following 12 months of therapy.These findings may suggest that HT may not block the menopause induced ischemia process as also reported in WHI and HERS studies. Although hormone therapy had positive effect on serum IMA levels following 3 months use, serum IMA levels returned to baseline levels on 12 months use. Based on this study findings, long term use of hormone therapy may not have positive effect on cardiovascular disease protection.