Abnormalities in the Fatty-Acid Composition of the Serum ... - NCBI

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Robert H. Glew, PhD; Henry Okolie, MD; Yung-Sheng Huang, PhD; Lu-Te Chuang, ... 272-3518; e-mail: [email protected] ..... Liao Y, Cooper RS.
Abnormalities in the Fatty-Acid Composition of the Serum Phospholipids of Stroke Patients Robert H. Glew, PhD; Henry Okolie, MD; Yung-Sheng Huang, PhD; Lu-Te Chuang, PhD; Ojo Suberu, BS; Michael Crossey, MD; and Dorothy J. VanderJagt, PhD Albuquerque, New Mexico; Gombe, Nigeria; and Columbus, Ohio

The incidence of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and myocardial infarction is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. Since dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are protective of the cardiovascular system in humans, we were interested in the question of the PUFA status of adults in northern Nigeria who had expenenced a recent stroke. We collected blood from 21 consecutive admissions for stroke (15 male patients, mean age 39.3 years and six females, mean age 40.7 years) to the Federal Medical Centre in Gombe, Nigena and analyzed the fatty-acid composition of the serum phospholipids. Blood was collected from 30 healthy controls for comparson. The contnbution palmitic acid made to the fatty-acid total was greatly decreased in the phospholipids of the stroke patients (29.2% versus 37.2 %, p