Serum ferritin and folate, but not uric acid, associate with coronary heart disease in a northern Chinese population

Background Increased serum ferritin and uric acid, and decreased folate may be candidate risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). The relation between these factors is rarely investigated in the same population and scarcely studied in a Chinese population. The study aimed to assess the associations between these factors and CHD in a northern Chinese population. The case group CHD+ included 68 patients. The control group CHD-consisted of 62 healthy persons. The concentrations of ferritin, folate, uric acid, and lipids in serum were analyzed. The levels of ferritin and uric acid in the CHD+ group were significantly higher than those in the CHD-group (119.3 μg/L vs. 62.5 μg/L, p<;0.0001; 321.7 μmol/L vs. 271.9 μmol/L, p<;0.005; respectively). Folate concentrations were significantly lower in the CHD+ group compared to the CHD-group (3.06 μg/L vs. 4.47 μg/L, p<;0.0001). Furthermore, ferritin positively and folate inversely related to CHD in a multivariate logistic regression analysis (OR 1.02, p=0.002; OR 0.29, p<;0.0001). We show, for the first time, that increased ferritin and decreased folate are independent risk factors for CHD in this Chinese population.