Effects Of Lower Doses Of Hormone Replacement Therapy On Coagulation And Fibrinolysis In Postmenopausal Women

Objective: To investigate the relationships among lower estrogen status, lipids profilesand coagulation/fibrinolysis potential, and to know their influence on cardiovasculardisease(CVD).Methods: We determined the levels of serum estrogen and lipid profiles, plasmaplasminogen activator inhibitor(PAI-l)antigen and tissue plasminogen activator(t-PA)antigen, plasma free protein S(FPS) and protein C(PC) antigen in 44 healthy women.Among them,24 menopausal women (mean age=54.8 ± 3.5) not on HRT served as apostmenopausal-age group, another 20 women (mean age=28 ± 3.2) served as areproductive-age group.Results: In comparison with reproductive-age group, postmenopausal-age group hadhigher levels of t-PA and PAI-1 antigen (10.76 ± 7.01 vs 7.07±3.59; 70.95 ± 17.34 vs7.07±3.59ng/ml, P<0.05)(but the ratio of t-PA to PAI-1 was markedly decreased), lowerlevels of FPS antigen (9.97 ±3.39 vs 11.02±2.17, P<0.05);and had higher levels of totalcholesterol(TC), Low-desity lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), triglyceride(TG), andlipoprotein(a); but the changes of PC antigen and High-desity lipoproteincholesterol(HDL-C) level were not significant.Conclusions: Serum estrogen levels were very low in postmenopausal women, thechanges of lipid profiles were adverse to cardiovascular system, further to cause thebalance of coagulation-fibrinolysis was shift to enhance coagulation potential, whichmay resulted in the incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease were dramaticallyincreased.